RAHLEENOS

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Pearl of Great Price PN 1. RAHLEENOS “hieroglyphics, drawn figures,” in Chaldean (BofAbraham 1:14)

Robert Boylan suggests derivation from ancient Egyptian Rˁ-ns “language of Reˁ.”[1]

Or perhaps derived from Egyptian rḫw “divine images,” perhaps with addition of Egyptian rЗ(w) “word(s), language,” and nsw “king” for hypothetical Egyptian *rḫw-rЗw-nsw “Divine-images-and-words-of-the-king.” Similarly for hypothetical Egyptian *rḫ-rЗ-nsw “Know-the-language-of-the-king”,[2] or *rḫ-r-rn “To-know-how-to-name,” or *rḫ-rЗ.n “Know-our-language,” or something of the sort used by the Chaldeans to refer to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Cf. Egyptian PN RiЗy (with hypocoristic suffix), transliterated in Akkadian cuneiform variously as Lēya, Leʼeya, ILe-e-ia, ILe-e-a-a.[3]

Val Sederholm recommends a look at Luwian-Palaic Lalinas (with genitive ending), meaning “speech; designs, decorative patterns.”[4] This would obviously be related to Greek laleō, lalein “to speak.” In such case, the -h- in Rahleenos would not be consonantal, but merely represent the short -a- (as in HAH-KO-KAU-BEAM).

Variant: Rah-lee-nos.

Notes


  1. Boylan, “Book of Abraham Onomasticon,” Oct 16, 2018.
  2. Cf. nsw = Akkadian insi in nsw-bity “King of Upper Egypt” = Akkadian insibya (Cochavi-Rainey, Akkadian Dialect of Egyptian Scribes, 86).
  3. Cochavi-Rainey, Akkadian Dialect of Egyptian Scribes, 190, citing El Amarna 162:70.
  4. H. Craig Melchert's 1993 Luwian lexicon; Anatolian Databases: Cuneiform Luvian Lexicon and Cuneiform Luvian Corpus, all found at www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/Melchert/webpage .

Bibliography