Amazing silimarity ! :O note: in case Hebrew codes don't show,
Aramaic fonts from Wikipedia come close
QUOTE Ziggy:
katakana
ニ但ニ陳?椎?ニ谷 A-ME-RI-KA
Hebrew
מ ני א ק Q- ' -Y-N-M, read from right to left
Aramaic
Q- ' -Y-N-M, read from right to left
Ziggy said:
The Hebrew word is read 'maniac', and it means '*******'
I think you're right about the coincidence. The word origin of the
bipolar mental illness mania is interesting nevertheless.
Wikipedia says it came via
the Latin goddess Mania of the dead and undead from the Etruscan goddess Manea, whereas
Merriam Webster's 10th Collegiate says it comes from Greek
mainesthai 'to be mad' (maniac from Greek
maniakos > Late Latin
maniacus).
Another theory says it comes from the Persian sect of ca. 276 called Manichaeism founded by
Mani the prophet (ca.210-ca.276) who learned from a Jewish ascetic group called Elkasites, yet he considered himself a disciple of Jesus. He also considered himself the last of all prophets, succeeding Seth, Noah, Abraham, Shem, Nikotheos, Enoch, Zoroaster, Hermes, Plato, Buddha, and Jesus.
(MW) '1: a syncretistic religious dualism originating in Persia teaching the release of the spirit from matter through asceticism 2: belief in religious or philosophical dualism.'
Manichees are supposed to have put much effort in bringing together into their belief all known religious traditions known at the time, including apocryphal texts such as the
Gospel of Thomas who supposedly evalgelized India.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was a Manichee in his youth. Could the enormously syncretistic tendency of Manichaeism be the origin of the idea of madness by analogy ?