The word “Amen” (Hebrew: אָמֵן, Arabic: آمين ) is found in
three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
It is usually uttered at the
end of a prayer to confirm what has been said before, meaning therefore “so be
it”, “truly”, “let it be so”. But what is its origin, linguistically speaking?
The word is commonly said to be of a Hebrew origin. It is the Greek who
introduced it in Western languages after the translation of the Bible. Then, it
is adopted by the Arabs as it is used in the Koran revealed to their prophet in
Arabic. But the problem is that in none of these languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Greek)
can be found contemporarily the least trace of the word “Amen”. The only
language – and we never thought of it though it is as ancient as the two first
ones – which offers us a clear explanation and confirms the meaning of “Amen”
as it is stated above, is the Berber language.
In Kabyle (one of the various dialects of Berber), there is the phrase “am-in”
that means synchronically, in common speech, “like that”. However, if we put “am-in”
in the context of a prayer, it will clearly mean “so be it”; with “it” referring
here to what has been said before. Notice the following example: “ad ig Rebbi
yedder! Am-in” (May he live! Amen; i.e. may what has been said come true).
The Berber term “in”, meaning the one who/which, is attested in
today’s Touareg dialects which are well-known for their preservation of the
most ancient phenomena related to the Berber language. It is the allomorph of
the Kabyle non-annexed form “win”.