Introduction

According to the Book of Mormon, that book was originally written in a form of Egyptian by authors who also knew and spoke Hebrew. Some scholars interpret this to mean that the Nephite authors wrote in Egyptian, while others believe they adapted an Egyptian script to write in Hebrew. This means that the original text was written in an ancient, near-eastern language despite being available only through modern translations. Based on numerous textual clues that appear to be dependent on a Semitic language, these features are often called hebraisms or semesticisms.