Return to Nephite Hebrew
The name Ammon's is particularly interesting as it would seem obvious that it is related to "Ammonihah", and "Ammonihah" is an attested Hebrew name, and based on that attestation, we would imagine Ammon to be spelled ayin-mem-nun. The odd thing about that is that we don't know what it would mean. There is no proposed etymology for this Ammonihah, which would be translated as "Jehovah is [ayin-mem-nun]".
Interestingly, the first Ammon we meet is described as a descendant of Zarahemla, which suggests that the name might be Mulekite in origin.
There is something interesting about Mosiah 7 verse 12. It reads as follows:
And now, when Ammon saw that he was permitted to speak, he went forth and bowed himself before the king; and rising again he said: O king, I am very thankful before God this day that I am yet alive, and am permitted to speak; and I will endeavor to speak with boldness;
The word "boldness" stuck out to me as I thought about what words might have some connection to the name "Ammon". In part, it sticks out because it is the final word of the verse, but it is only used once and has no obvious connection within the text. If this is connected to the name "Ammon", then it is far enough away that it suggests a chiasm. Is that plausible? As it turns out, yes, it does seem plausible.
Hence, if boldness can be accepted to act as a chiastic counterpoint to Ammon, then this works pretty well, and may even extend to surrounding verses. If not, then it is pretty weak.
"I am very thankful before God this day that I am yet alive", is, I think, the biggest weakness in the structure, and really it is the "I am yet alive part" that does the most to make the structure awkward here. Nevertheless, as Chiasms go, I think it's pretty serviceable.
AI seemed to suggest that others have made similar connections, but checking its sources, I'm not finding it very easily, so It may be hallucinating. Here are the possibilities as I see them:
My hypothesis is 3.1
It is hard for me to think about any connection to Aleph-Mem-Nun and not think about the word "Laman" which has a lot of evident wordplay based on this root. This scripture soon came to mind:
And behold now, I am a bold Lamanite; behold, this war hath been waged to avenge their wrongs, and to maintain and to obtain their rights to the government; and I close my epistle to Moroni. (Alma 54:24)
If I have struck on something real, then "bold Lamanite" would be a bit of wordplay.
To really get at the heart of this I need to look at how the word is used and see if there are any patterns:
Lots of interesting stuff here. We get a big cluster of "no obvious connection" spanning Helaman and 3 Nephi. Now that I've done this, I don't even know what to make of it all. Qualitatively, it feels pretty significant, but I don't think it would be an easy task to quantify the significance relative to any baseline.
I will say that, consistent with my hypothesis, the idea of steadfastness seems to be present in all middle-to-late Nephite usages, and seems entirely absent from Jacob's usage in Jacob 2:7, which would clearly be an early Nephite dialect.
2 Nephi 4:24 is interesting, because we could certainly imagine replacing the word "bold" with "steadfast", but we also see the word "mighty" used here, which would normally leave me searching for a word like "strength". At the time of Nephi's departure, there really wasn't a word for "bold". When I first asked AI about how to say "boldness" it actually recommended words that had the combined meanings of "strength" and "courage"; "ayin-zayin" (oz/az) and "'amats" (אָמַץ)
Considering that the Nephites and the Mulekites merged at about the time I perceive this linguistic feature appearing, and given that the first Ammon IS a descendant of Zarahemla, it seems like an easy leap to suggest that the linguistic mixing that came from contact between the two cultures may have contributed significantly to an expansion of the concepts related to a-m-n.
The way Ammonihah in some places suggests that Ammon may have a negative side to it conveying a flavor of pride connected to stiffneckedness or hard-heartedness. It is not uncommon for Hebrew adjectives to convey both positive and negative aspects of a concept.
See: Alma 15
The pairing of Ammon with Lamoni would be seen then as a pairing of opposites. The emphasized faithfulness or steadiness meets the unfaithful.
The text is riddled with concepts such as faith, belief, truth, etc.; However, we also get the following direct connection between Ammon and the concept of boldness:
19) Ammon answered and said unto him: I am not. 20) And the king said: How knowest thou the thoughts of my heart? Thou mayest speak boldly, and tell me concerning these things; and also tell me by what power ye slew and smote off the arms of my brethren that scattered my flocks 24) And Ammon began to speak unto him with boldness, and said unto him: Believest thou that there is a God? - Alma 18:19-20,24
We also see in Alma 27:26-30 strong potential for a demotic pun, where the "People of Ammon" would likely be rendered as AmAmmon offering some additional reduplication such that the title can also be read as the "extremely steadfast". Appropriately, the introduction of this title is followed by a description of their extreme steadfastness.
26) And it came to pass that it did cause great joy among them. And they went down into the land of Jershon, and took possession of the land of Jershon; and they were called by the Nephites the people of Ammon; therefore they were distinguished by that name ever after. 27) And they were among the people of Nephi, and also numbered among the people who were of the church of God. And they were also distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things; and they were firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end. 28) And they did look upon shedding the blood of their brethren with the greatest abhorrence; and they never could be prevailed upon to take up arms against their brethren'; and they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it. 29) Therefore, they would suffer death in the most aggravating and distressing manner which could be inflicted by their brethren, before they would take the sword or cimeter to smite them. 30) And thus they were a zealous and beloved people, a highly favored people of the Lord. - Alma 27:26-30
The phrase "firm in the faith" (Hebrew: ne'eman ba'emunah) in particular, is a different sort of doubling of the aleph-mem-nun concept.