Talk:Arabic language of the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon describes Lehi as a Manassite merchant living in the Kingdom of Judah, and was familiar with the language of Judah's neighbors, particularly the Egyptian language - but at the supposed time of the story in the Book, the language of Egypt would not have been Arabic. RickK 07:26, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)
- Of course not. Ancient Egyptian was the language of Egypt. Earlier forms of Arabic would have been the language of nomadic peoples in the Arabian peninsula, where most of the First Book of Nephi takes place. - Gilgamesh 11:58, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Then the above-quoted sentence has nothing to do with the subject of this article. RickK 19:51, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)
- Sure it does. It establishes Lehi as a traveling merchant who is multilingual. It is also significant because Nephi is an Egyptian name. If that is not satisfactory, we can instead simply state that he was very multilingual. But I don't think the sentence itself should be removed. - Gilgamesh 00:30, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Then the above-quoted sentence has nothing to do with the subject of this article. RickK 19:51, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)
I'm not quite sure what to do with this page. (1) I don't believe it's true that "[i]n Latter-day Saint theology" the Arabic language is considered to play a significant role in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon doesn't mention "Arabic" at all--it only refers to "Reformed Egyptian". The only reference to "Arabic" made in the LDS scriptures is to JS-H 1: 64 "characters on plates resemble Arabic". (2) Stuff like Nephi, Abinadi, and Sam being Arabic-influenced is possible, but not doctrinal. That should be rewritten to make it clear who believes they're Arabic-influenced, and why. So far there are no sources to check up on. (3) While I've read the Arabic translation of the Book of Mormon, I see nothing remarkable linguistically about it... what makes it of "particular interest to religious LDS linguistics studies"? It's not some magical restoration of the original text--it's a translation from the English text into Arabic. A translation of a translation of a translation. (4) We already have a "Linguistics and the Book of Mormon" page, and I thought we had a "Languages of the Book of Mormon" page as well, although I can't seem to find it at the moment. Shouldn't this information be merged into that article?
So, should I make edits I think appropriate to this page here? Does it even have enough worth to remain an article? Is there any information important enough to merge with "Linguistics and the Book of Mormon"? --Dlugar 03:58, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I believe the "Languages of the Book of Mormon" page I was thinking of now exists as Reformed Egyptian. --Dlugar 04:03, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)
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