Friday, June 12, 2009

Boid on the Adding of the Letter Nun

Fortunately we now have some Cathar documents. I have had a few books on my shelves without having got round to reading them. I will have a look.

The insertion of a Nun is normal and common in Aramaic, though the rules are not fully understood and are different according to the dialect and period. As an obvious example, the original madda’ (MEM-DALETH-‘AYIN) in Aramaic, meaning knowledge, the same form as in Hebrew, has become manda’ (MEM-NUN-DALET-’AYIN) in most dialects. (The root is YOD-DALET-‘AYIN). Thus the name of the Mandaeans. The easiest solution is to assume the insertion of N before the word was borrowed into Greek or Latin.


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