Sunday, October 6, 2019

Robert F. Smith on the Etymology of "Irreantum"


In his well-researched paper, The Preposterous Book of Mormon: A Singular Advantage, Robert F. Smith (who is very active on Quora answering LDS-related questions) offered the following etymology for “Irreantum” in 1 Nephi 17:5:

Irreantum, “Many Waters” (1 Nephi 17:5), likely the Egyptian pronunciation of ’IrЗnt, ’Irnt [46] the Egyptian transliteration for the Orontes, the largest river in Syria. This Egyptian spelling had the water determinative mw at the close, [47] which sometimes represents -um, [48] as well as -m in Egyptian group writing, [49] and may thus very well have been vocalized something like *ʼirantum. [50] The name originates in Iranic haeravanta “that of grandeur, greatness,” which is applied to the names of mountains, and to other rivers, as well as to some Armenian kings, and even to the capital city of Armenia, Yeravan (Erewan). [51] In the Avestan (Sassanid) form Arvand, it is another name for the Tigris River and for the confluence of the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers (otherwise known as the Shatt al-Arab waterway) which opens into the Persian Gulf. [52]

Notes for the Above:

47 E. A. W. Budge, A Hieroglyphic Dictionary, 73, 961a, citing A. Mariette, Abydos: description de fouilles, II (Paris, 1880), 4, 15 (temples of Seti & Ramses II); and Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, 4:129 (stele of Amenothis II, Karnak). Fully pЗ mw n irnt “the waters of the Orontes.”

48 Egyptian šmw “summer” > Coptic šōm; Eg. ym > Copt. eiom; Eg. pЗ-ym “Fayyum” > Copt. fiom. This is true in other ways as well, Eg. ʼItmw > Copt. Atoum; Eg. ˁhmw > Copt. ahoum.

49 Alan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 3rd ed., §60, and Sign List N(35), citing the Canaanite GN Ynˁm “Yenoam” in Egyptian transliteration.

50 Cf. James Hoch, Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, §§52, 304; Table 8, and page 508 (mu3).

51 King Yervand IV was the last king of the Orontid Dynasty (Wikipedia.org, online at https://uc.99kk.eu.org/0/?url=bmF2aXJFL2lraXcvZ3JvLmFpZGVwaWtpdy5tLm5lLy9BMyVwdHRo ).

52 Avestan (Sassanid) arvand is the translation of Old Persian tigra “sharp; roaring” (Rozbeh Parsapoor, Arvand River, 2008, Persian Gulf Studies Center, online at http://www.persiangulfstudies.com/en/ index.asp?p=pages&ID=174 ), which is the source of the name for the great Tigris River.