I have written about how "Sheum" in Mosiah 9:9 is evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, being derived from an Akkadian word Sheu(m). On this, see:
"Neas" and "Sheum" in the Book of Mormon
As I try to demonstrate intellectual honesty and integrity as best as I can, here is a footnote in the recent (and excellent) Dictionary of Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Mormon that attempts to challenge this proposed etymology:
Sumerian
še lacks the nominative case
ending u and the m of mimation that are necessary if SHEUM
were to be derived from še. In no
case that I am aware of did Hebrew retain a case ending or mimation when it did
borrow an Akkadian word that ultimately was a borrowing of a Sumerian word. The
two best known examples of a borrowing of a Sumerian word through Akkadian into
Hebrew are hêkāl and kissē. Additionally, there is some variance
in how the sign še is read when
it means “barley, grain, etc.” Both še’u and u’u are possible.
See Borger, Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon 374, no. 579, middle of the
page. (“Sheum,” 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], 324 n. 93)
The following images come from Rykle
Borger, Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon (Alter Orient und Altest
Testament Veröffentlichungen zur Kultur und Geschichte des Alten Orients und
des Alten Testaments 305; Münster:Ugarit-Verlag 2004), 374-76 (click to enlarge):
Instead, an Egyptian etymology is offered:
The
Egyptian noun sm may also offer a possible etymology. It means “herb,
herbage, vegetables, plans,” etc (Faulkner, Concise Dictionary of Middle
Egyptian, 225). In Demotic (a later script and dialect of Egyptian roughly
contemporary with Lehi) this noun appears as both sm and sym
(Erichsen, Demotisches Glossar, 430), pronounced sim in Coptic.
The Egyptian s appearing as a Semitic š would present no problems.
(Ibid., 324)
In the footnote to the above, we
read that
The
Hebrew consonant š is represented as an s in Egyptian 28 percent
of the time (Hoch, Egyptian Words in Egyptian Texts, 433), and the
Egyptian consonant s is a Hebrew š about 33 percent of the time
(Hoch, Egyptian Words in Egyptian Texts, 436). The sound shifts are thus
possible. (Ibid., 324 n. 96)