What if the strongest evidence for the Book of Mormon isn't archaeological but linguistic?

In this episode of Informed Saints, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Brian Stubbs, a respected Uto-Aztecan linguist whose foundational comparative dictionary of the language family was praised as a "monumental contribution" by Kenneth Hill in the International Journal of American Linguistics. After decades of work, Stubbs has documented more than 1,650 cognate sets connecting Hebrew, Aramaic, and Egyptian to the Uto-Aztecan language family, which spans from the Utes in the north to the Aztecs in the south and includes more than thirty languages across western North America and Mexico.

In this conversation, we cover:

What cognates are and why consistent sound correspondences are the gold standard for establishing a relationship between languages.

Why linguists generally require at least 10% overlap to establish relatedness, and how Stubbs' Semitic and Egyptian data accounts for roughly 60% of the cognates in his Uto-Aztecan dictionary.

Specific cognate examples, including barak/peroq (lightning), bat/pata (daughter), and saba/sipo (star).

How a single Aramaic dialect from northern Palestine matches Uto-Aztecan in a way that points to ancient northern Israel, the region of Manasseh and Ephraim.

The remarkable "lion to mountain lion" sound shift that directly addresses one of the most cited Book of Mormon anachronisms.

The two distinct sound correspondences in Uto-Aztecan (Semitic-P and Semitic-Kw) that suggest two related but distinct language groups merged into one population, an unexpected parallel to the Nephite-Mulekite merger described in the Book of Mormon.

Why language evidence is uniquely unfakable compared to inscriptions and physical artifacts.

Endorsements from David H. Kelley, John Robertson, Dirk Elsinga, Roger Westcott, and other prominent linguists.

Brian Stubbs' latest research will appear in a forthcoming volume from the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University entitled "In the Eyes of the Ancient: Historical Perspectives on the Book of Mormon."

===Informed Saints Credits===

Produced by The Ancient America Foundation

Producer: Spencer Clark

Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye