What's in a name?

If you're an astute Croatian who has kept up with my blog, you might have read my original post about Enoh, gone to your Bible and found that the passage in Genesis does not have 'Enoh' spelled this way. In fact it is spelled 'Henok' which apparently is close to the Hebrew way of pronouncing the name. The fact is, this spelling ('Enoh') and pronounciation actually comes from the Serbian translation of the Bible. Petra and her family always heard 'Enoh' in church and apparently assumed it was the Croatian version.

For those of you who are curious, Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian are essentially the same language. I say that hesitantly because there are former Yugoslavians who would straight out object. However, the Slavic linguist in our family who teaches all three languages at a university in America says they are the same - with some minor differences (kind of like the relationship between British English and American).

So, it was not correct to say that 'Enoh' is the way the name is written in the Croatian Bible, but it is correct to say that it is the commonly used version of Enoh here in the former Yugoslavia - apparently rooting from the Serbian translation.

If nothing else this blog entry gives me an excuse to add more photos!