Scotland's Jews

[Nathan]

Alas, Nathan, the current translation of Genesis in the Revised Standard Version says Joseph's coat was with long sleeves! They'd be translating the Hebrew. Shame.

The King James version translated the OT (sic) from the Hebrew, except for those books only found in the Septuagint. Those additional books aren't very important in themselves but at times a big shibboleth between Catholics and Protestants.

Long sleeves, so it wasn't a belted plaid, but it still could have been tartan.

I am aware that the King James Version used the masoretic Hebrew text as well, but by then the name "James" had clearly already achieved popularity after centuries of Catholicism.

[Mike_Oettle]

What intrigues me about the name James is that, going by what I have read, it is a form that occurred in Scotland before it was encountered in England.
I believe it comes from Italian: in most Italian dialects, the name occurs as Giacopo, but in some it is transformed as Giacomo (as in Puccini). Somehow this form apparently found its way to Scotland. What its precise connection is with the Gaelic form of the name, I am unsure. Perhaps the Gaelic form came with the Irish missionaries, but it is not impossible that Hamish is derived from James.
Certainly before the form James appeared in England, the preferred form there was Jacob.
As for the colours of Joseph’s coat, the incredibly long list quoted comes from the imagination of lyricist Tim Rice, who collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber to create Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
If the shades were eliminated and reduced to a much smaller number of colours, this might be worth producing as a tartan – but I would like to see an image of it before someone goes ahead and has it woven!
Regards,
Mike

[neloon]

Mike,
There appears to have been an Old French form "Gemmes" in the mix of European forms you refer to. I suppose it is possible that this could have been favoured in Scotland before England because of the Auld Alliance.
There being no "j" in Gaelic, the usual transliteration would be Seumas (pron. "shaymus") of which the vocative is Sheumais (pron. "Haymish").
(So "Hamish" is not really a sensible formation unless you're actually speaking to the guy.)
Alan

[Nathan]

Mike,
There appears to have been an Old French form "Gemmes" in the mix of European forms you refer to. I suppose it is possible that this could have been favoured in Scotland before England because of the Auld Alliance.
There being no "j" in Gaelic, the usual transliteration would be Seumas (pron. "shaymus") of which the vocative is Sheumais (pron. "Haymish").
(So "Hamish" is not really a sensible formation unless you're actually speaking to the guy.)
Alan

***... Nobody where I come from is actually named Hamish. There are tons of people named Seamas and Seamus. As Neloon pointed out, when we address a Seamus, we say A Sheumais (a Hamish), but the name is still Sheumais. This vocative custom changes most names Mairi becomes Mhairi (vah-di) etc...

I don't know of any other language that does this to names, including Irish, as far as I know. Admittedly, I've never studied Irish and have only been told this by an Irish friend who isn't fluent but took it in school.

Another interesting coincidence is that Hamish (Haymishe) is a common yiddish expression that means (familiar or like home). Being a Germanic language like Scots, they share the word hame for home, although as I proved in another thread, I'm not sure if this holds for all dialects of Scots/Lallans as I have very limited contact with it and far more familiarity with Gàidhlig.

[neloon]

Nathan,
Irish has (unsurprisingly) exactly the same vocatives as Scots Gaelic and vocatives are also present in Welsh and many other languages - see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocative_case

Alan

[Wil]

"Benzie" is a not uncommon Aberdeenshire surname generally said to be derived from "Benjamin" (?via "Benjie").
Jacobite is just from James . Why Jacobus is Latin for James I know not.
Hebrides in original Greek was something like "Ebudae" so I doubt that there is any connection with "Hebrew".
Alan

Alan,
Also Benzie, is short in Yiddish/Hebrew for Benzion. Ben (son of ), Zie (Zion) so it is Son of Zion.....
I have never heard of Benzie being short for Benjamin in Yiddish/Hebrew

[neloon]

Alan,
Also Benzie, is short in Yiddish/Hebrew for Benzion. Ben (son of ), Zie (Zion) so it is Son of Zion.....
I have never heard of Benzie being short for Benjamin in Yiddish/Hebrew

OK, Wil, that could be right.
Alan