JOHN...TO...JONES : Big Picture 4

Perhaps, this will be the biggest picture yet.  It shows a corridor in time through the languages that became involved in our surname JONES.  First, take a deep breath...then take a look at the figure below.

Wow you might say...but let's begin in the upper left corner.

The Hebrew language was the first to introduce the writing of the name we translate JOHN.  It was around 1000 BC.  The documentation can be found in "The Interlinear Bible -  Hebrew / English" Vol. II, p. 1123.  "Jehohanan" is the English translation, and the story is found in the book  I Chronicles 26:3.

The name carried through the Hebrew, and it was not until the Jewish scholars at Alexandria, Egypt (285-247 BC) translated their books into Greek, that the name appears in a more widely used language.  "Ionathan" [translated Jonathan] is the word. The documentation can be found in "The Septuagint with Apocrypha" by Brenton, p.561.

Now is was the Roman Empire that brought its language [Latin] to the world, and it became the dominate phonetic expression.   It was under this "world administration" that Christianity had its beginnings, and the name JOHN appears frequently in the early Christian writings.   Around 250 AD, the Christians were being driven out of the Empire, and the faith moved to the Islands.  Here it met the Celtic folks who formed the "Celtic Church". [P-Celtic/Brythonic]

Around 400 AD the Roman world was about to collapse and the P-Celtic folks began their own development as linguistic groups.  It was also around this time that the Saxons began their appearance, and the Anglo-Saxon language joined in the fray.  So, by 600 AD the Saxons had accepted Christianity, the Celtic Church had survived, and the Roman center of Church administration all used the surname JOHN. [Only in their own language...Latin being that of the Church.]

So again, before the French [Normans] ever showed up; 1) Latin, 2) Anglo-Saxon , and 3) Welsh were recording the name JOHN in their own languages, transmitted from the Hebrew to Greek.  Now, how "big" a picture can you get?

A summary is shown:

A Big...Big...Big Picture 2

Writing or speaking words become the threads that bind a cultural group together in this world of experiences.  Events of life like birth, death, and all the places in between, are packaged in words that get past down from one generation to the next.  The following table shows some of these words used among the language groups that played a role in the derivation of the surname JONES.  The words of life they are called.

The first column list these words in English, which is the language of my own tongue.  Next is Welsh which seems to be the cultural foundation for our surname JONES.  Latin [the language of the early Christian Church that wrote things down]...French [the language of those folks taking over the Island after 1066]...Greek [the language which clustered in the educated of the day such as priest, clerks, and the record keepers]...and finally Anglo-Saxon [the vernacular] which survived to bring us to the English.

Now what has this got to do with the surname JONES you may be asking.  Well, if you will, take each word in the first column and move its spelling across the other columns, you will see variations among the language groups.  Some spellings are close, but for the Welsh there are dramatic differences.  For example, the word for "Man" is "dyn" in the Welsh, but "homo" in Latin, "homme" in French, an "anthropose" in the Greek.  In the Anglo-Saxon it is "man".  Take some time and look through the words of life.

All this analysis shows how different the Welsh tongue is to our English tongue.  This difference is one main factor in the "phonetic" changes that took place during the course of the chronology of our surname JONES.  The language groups listed above all played a role in the formation and changes to our surname.  Welsh to English passing thorough a group of languages to become JONES.  What a "BIG" picture indeed it is.

Note: This table was put together after many years of trying to piece together why the various spellings of "John" appeared in the documents of the day.  Who would have known?

How do you spell JOHN

The following is a chronological account of the spelling of JOHN. Starting with the Hebrew language around 970 B.C., it has been spelled differently in many languages throughout the world. The Greek's were the second language having translated the Hebrew's sacred writings into Greek at Alexandria in the third century before the Christian era. [Called the Septuagint.] Of course the Roman Empire followed the Greeks, and their Latin took over the world. This was followed by many other languages throughout the Empire as Christianity became the Western World's official religion. It was Christianity that brought the name JOHN to our little Island.

Hebrew (900 B.C.) = Yohanan = Johanan

Greek (400 B.C.) = Ioannes = Ioannhn = Joannes

Latin (100 B.C.) = Ioan = Johannes

After Christianity introduced:

French (old) = Johan = Jehan = Jan

French (later) = Jean = Jeanno

Gaelic = Iain = Ian

Irish = Sean = Shawn

Welsh = Sion

Scotch = Jock

Russian = Ivan

Polish = Jan

Spanish = Juan

Dutch = Jan

Hungarian = Janos

Slavonic = Janez = Jovan

Italian = Giovanni

Middle English = Jon

Modern English = John

So how do you spell JOHN?