Correction

[Stefan Georg]

I stated earlier:

>- jap     namu

?? This means "amen" in Japanese

This of course reveals that I don't exactly *know* Japanese.
The rendering "amen" is of course highly, so to speak, acculturated (though
Japanese Christians use it in this sense, so I'm told). A better
translation could be "reverence, bowing", and it is, surprise, a Sanskrit
loan, from the well-known Buddhist formula "namo Buddha:ya, namo dharma:ya,
namo saMgha:ya" (reverence to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Congregation".

The word HH probably had in mind is  /namae/; but here /na/ means "name",
and the rest of the compound - for a compound it is - is /mae/ "front".
Though it doesn't mean exactly "first name" or sthlth. according to my
sources and the informants I was able to interview yesterday, it seems
likely that its semantic history involves something along these lines.
Anyway, the resemblance to IE words is entirely fortuitous.

St.G.

Dr. Stefan Georg
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