8 A. FONAHN. M.-N. KI. 
When placing the above mentioned Palmyrene personal name in its 
variants and Greek transcription: 
3pyny 
apyny 
JpynN 
‘An anaBoc 
beside the Arabic «Xs 
a striking parallelism is shown. Though we may regard the y, as imitial, 
as the more correct writing, we meet also N instead of the y, in the Arabic 
word we have | corresponding to the Aramaic initial N. The second and 
the third character are alike in Palmyrene and Arabic; the fourth is different, 
because Arabic S corresponds to Aramaic 5, not to D- Vet, we are able 
to point to instances showing 3 interchanging with p in Aramaic; thus 
5 stands for D in the words nom, NY'3, "S15. Often the Hebrew D 
is parallelized by grammerians with Arabic therefore somebody may 
object to the identification of UlXs3} with SPYDN on that score. Yet, # 
must be remembered that the Hebrew p is reckoned among the palatals, 
like 5, while the Arabic 
In our Arabic inscription the | written after the « shows that the 
vs is a strongly articulated guttural. 
vowel following S is a long 4. The last character _ corresponds with 
the Palmyrene-Aramaic I of the 2DynN. 
Consequently, there should be no real objection to parallelizing the 
-AXa3| with the Palmyrene nomen proprium 2DyDnN or 2pyny. 
Now, how should this personal name be pronounced? 
The Palmyrene is evidently composed of two components; the first 
is "Dy or “TN or TY, the second py: 
The first one is met with in other compound Aramaic and Canaanite 
names (NY, sy, NUDy) — also in the form of NDy (as final 
component, e. g. in NDy"I3I and ANY (NY) y, Hauraninscript., Wad- 
dington). 
De Vogüé thinks that this “NY »Athi« or » Alha« (he seems to prefer 
the first reading) is derived from NY = tempus opportunum, and design- 
ates un genie bienfaisant, sorte de Bonus-Eventus«. Under the name 
Dany [“Ati-natan] he remarks: »Nous retrouvons ici la deesse »’Athi«. 
He tells, how in Phrygia they worshipped a male moon-god, a 
»Lunus«, under the name of Athys. He is disposed to identify this Athys 
with the deity ‘My [Ati] discovered in the inscriptions of Palmyra, but 
adds guardedly: »je n'oserais l'affirmer«. 
