“International” forms of Biblical Hebrew personal names
Their adoption and adaptation in the international planned language Esperanto
Tsvi Sadan | Bar-Ilan University
The present study attempts to examine what presumably guided Zamenhof in choosing “international” forms for Biblical Hebrew personal names when he translated the whole Hebrew Bible into Esperanto. A comparison of these names graphically and phonetically with their equivalents in eight possible source languages, i.e., Hebrew, Latin, Italian, French, English, German, Polish and Russian, reveals a preference for Hebrew, German and Polish forms in descending order as possible etymons ascribable to Zamenhof’s own linguistic background. The morphological adaptation of these names is conditioned by the phonetic characteristics of their etymons.
Keywords: Esperanto, lexical internationalism, Biblical Hebrew, personal names
Published online: 12 December 2008
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.32.3.05sad
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.32.3.05sad