From Brad DeLong

by Cliopatria

A number of us received an e-mail from Brad DeLong about Mike Allen's"Undoing Obama: Inside the Coming Effort to Dismantle a Candidate," The Politico, 8 February. Among other things, Allen writes:

Now, Obama's about to endure a going-over that would make a proctologist blush. Why has he sometimes said his first name is Arabic, and other times Swahili?... Even his name offers fodder for the critics.... Whatever its origins, the exotic, multicultural name....

DeLong does such a good job of setting Allen straight that I want simply to quote him.

The answer, of course, is that the name is both--it is a Swahili word that is derived from Arabic (kudos to Andrew Northrup), as two minutes of googling by Mike Allen would have established.
And this"exotic, multicultural name" business... Five minutes of familiarity with Judaism would have taught Allen that the"exotic, multicultural" Barack = Barak = Baruch = b•r•k in its ur-Semitic stem is not only the name of a recent Israeli prime minister but is the start of a prayer said every Friday night by every Jew who lights their Shabbat candles. And fifteen minutes of familiarity with Christianity would have reminded Allen that the first eight sentences of Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount in Matthew all begin with the Aramaic for b•r•k....
And, of course, Allen's pretense that he is just reporting on the Freak Show is just that--a pretense.
Hillary Clinton's and John Edwards's and Rudolf Giuliani's and John McCain's top staffers aren't going to get out there in public and say:"Obama. What a liar! Sometimes he says his first name is Arabic, sometimes he says it's Swahili!" They need a Mike Allen to do that -- and those who count on having a Mike Allen to do that also count on his willingness to enable them further by covering up their tracks.

No doubt someone, in some provincial place, thought the name of South Carolina's Bernard Baruch was"exotic ... multicultural." Blessed are those who expose appeals to our ignorance for what they are.

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More Comments:

Ben W. Brumfield - 2/12/2007

kuf and chaf are also transliterated as quf and kaf when using the same system as is applied to other semitic languages. The begadkephat sound change affects pronunciation, but not the genetic relationship between Hebrew "brch"/"brk" and Arabic.

This week I'll try and ask my semitic language friends if there is a relationship.

Or read my reply to your previous comment.

Michael Pitkowsky - 2/12/2007

Ralph,

It is largely irrelevant to DeLong's point, maybe of value as an example of people using analogies from areas of which they might not be competent (myself included).

Lastly, the two sounds in question are represented by two different letters. B*R*K for lighting, the "k" is the letter kuf, while in B*R*CH for blessing, the "ch" is the letter chaf. This week I'll try and ask my semitic language friends if there is a relationship.

Ben W. Brumfield - 2/11/2007

I think Michael P. is correct--in regard to the name of the former Prime Minister of Israel. Barak (Beit-resh-quf) is "lightning" in Hebrew.

That's true, but it would be a mistake to confuse transcription systems with what they actually represent. In the Hebrew I was taught, quf was transliterated with a q, as is its cognate letter in the usual transcription system for Arabic and (perhaps more important) the standard in Semitic historical linguistics. Certainly ch is used for a dagesh-less k, but for the same reasons it's used for a chi -- the Romans thought a voiceless velar fricative sounded pretty close to a velar stop + aspiration.

I can't speak to Arabic or Swahili, but if you normalize transcriptions, Hebrew baruk(='ch') is the same as Ge'ez baraka and Akkadian burku, which all mean kneel, bless, or knee. Hebrew brq(='k') is the same as Ge'ez baraqa and Akkadian baraqu, meaning lightening or flash.

Adam Shear - 2/11/2007

Delong does not seem to have included the example of the Israeli prime minister on his blog so perhaps this is moot.

(Sorry for the double posting. I'll try a lighter touch on the submit button for this one).

Adam Shear - 2/11/2007

I think Michael P. is correct--in regard to the name of the former Prime Minister of Israel. Barak (Beit-resh-quf) is "lightning" in Hebrew. This does not change the substance of DeLong's argument except to correct an error involving one of his examples. Otherwise, yes, as Ben B. puts it: "'Barak' [in Arabic and Swahili] is almost certainly cognate with 'Baruch' [in Hebrew]."
Of course it will probably not help Obama with the Christian right when they realize he shares the same first name as Spinoza.

Ben W. Brumfield - 2/11/2007

DeLong is actually correct. The quf phoneme often trascribed as 'k' in Hebrew is equivalent to that transcribed as 'q' in Akkadian or (I gather) Arabic.

"Barak" is almost certainly cognate with "Baruch", modulo differences in transcription systems and dagesh-less pronunciation.

Jonathan Dresner - 2/11/2007

I'm not going digging in DeLong's comments, but I will say this: it's not uncommon to romanize the khet sound as a "k" or as an "h" (usually with a dot under it) or as a "ch"; none of them are accurate phonetic representations because that voiced consonant doesn't exist in English. It doesn't exist in a lot of other languages, either, and it's entirely plausible that it might have undergone a phonetic shift in transition.

Ralph E. Luker - 2/11/2007

Michael, Assuming that you are correct, what would that do to DeLong's point?
Also, I'd suggest that you make your correction at DeLong's blog, where there's been a considerable discussion of this.

Michael Pitkowsky - 2/11/2007

I wrote the wrong links for the Hebrew roots, switch them around.

Michael Pitkowsky - 2/11/2007

DeLong is wrong on the Hebrew etymology. The root B*R*K (no. 1300 here, with the K being hard, means lightning. The root B*R*CH (no. 1288 here, with the CH being a sound which I have a hard time describing since no equivalent exists in English, means "bless" and has it's root in the act of kneeling or bending the knees in supplication.