In the recent Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, we read under the entry concerning “-ites”:
is
a plural gentilic ending (likely based on the Hebrew plural suffix -iyyîm)
that functions as a substantive own right in 4 Nephi 1:17 . . . (“-ites,” in Dictionary
of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D.
Ricks, Paul Y. Hoskisson, Robert F. Smith, and John Gee [Orem, Utah:
Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2022], 155)
Note the following from (Robert
F. Smith, Egyptianisms in the Book of Mormon and Other Studies (Provo,
Utah: Deep Forest Green Books, 2020), 30-31 concerning the same:
“Ites” is for Ethnicity
“Ites” in IV Nephi 17 “nor any
manner of -ites,” has no known parallel in Hebrew as a single word, even though
there are several ways of producing ethnic or tribal references which can be
translated with that gentilic English termination: Hebrew běnê-ˁammôn “Ammonites”
(Genesis 19:38, Deuteronomy 2:19), which could also reflect “people of Ammon”
(Alma 27:26, Helaman 3:12); or the Hebrew plurals hāˁammōnîm (Deuteronomy
2:20, I Kings 11:5, Nehemiah 4:1), and ˁammōnîyôt (1 Kings 11:1),
(156) all meaning “Ammonites.”
Thus, -ites likely
represents the Egyptian determinative sign for “people,”
(157) which is not vocalized, but is frequently accompanied by a plural
termination -w, as in šЗsw “bedouin” (accompanied by a man &
woman over plural signs as the determinative). (158) It
could also serve an ideographic function in this generic case on the Book of
Mormon plates.
as in 
“Israelites” (Merneptah Stele)
Notes for the Above:
[156] BDB 770; Koehler
& Baumgartner, HALOT, II:843-844.
[157] Gardiner, Egyptian
Grammar, 3rd ed., 442 (Sign-list A1), as in ˁЗmw “Asiatics”; or in YsriЗr
“Israel,” in line 27 of the Merneptah Stele (M. G. Hasel, "Israel in
the Merneptah Stela," BASOR, 296/12 [1994]:54, 56).
[158] R. Faulkner, CDME,
261, citing Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, I:193*; Justin Kelley,
"Toward a New Synthesis of the God of Edom and Yahweh," Antiguo
Oriente 7 (2009): 262, online at http://www.academia.edu/211171/_Toward_a_New_
