Re: Russian names (was: Re: A perfect day...)

At 11:35 am -0600 31/1/00, Matt Pearson wrote:
>Vasiliy Chernov wrote:
>
>>>My first name is Joel, which would be "Yul" in Russian, wouldn't
>>>it?
>>
>>Do you know its etymology? I thought first of Yul(i)y, a rather common
>>name, but it goes back to Julius. If your name doesn't, then it must be
>>some really rare name; Ioil?
[snip]
>And no, it has no connection to Julius, as far as I know.  It comes from
>a Hebrew name, which means something like "Yahweh is (the only) God".
>Joel was a minor prophet, I think; one of the books of the Old Testament
>was named after him.
Spot on - nothing to do with the Roman Julius - Joel was one of the minor
prophets.  In the Greek Septuagint his name is rendered
iota-omega-eta-lambda

So, yes, if the Church Slavonic adopted the Byzantine form - and one
assumes it did - then it would be Ioil, as Vasily says.

Ray.



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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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