Brian D. Stubbs discusses the etymology and meaning of "Anti-Nephi-Lehi"; proposes an Egyptian origin meaning "those of/belong to/of the persuasion of Nephi and Lehi."

Date
2020
Type
Book
Source
Brian D. Stubbs
LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reference

Brian D. Stubbs, Changes in Languages from Nephi to Now, 2nd edition (N.P.: Brian D. Stubbs, 2020), 25-26

Scribe/Publisher
Brian D. Stubbs
People
Brian D. Stubbs
Audience
Reading Public
PDF
Transcription

Twenty third, another nice fit with Egyptian is the name that the converted Lamanites took upon themselves: Anti-Nephi-Lehi. Egyptian nty originally meant ‘one of’ or ‘one belonging to’; it also had a plural ntyw, but that fell out of use so that nty was used for both singular and plural. Having two consonants together at the beginning of a word often encourages a prosthetic vowel such that nty > anti is easily plausible. In fact. Coptic ente (< nty) actually has such a prosthetic vowel. (Coptic is a late form of Egyptian; see Appendix D.) As for the Nephi-Lehi juxtaposition as ‘and’, like ɧnʕ ‘with’ and others, but usually nouns were simply juxtaposed or put in line. So nty-Nephi-Lehi is good Egyptian meaning ‘those of Nephi and Lehi’ or ‘belonging to’ or ‘of the persuasion of Nephi and Lehi.’

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