additionally, some scholars, including professor royal skousen, have proposed, based on textual evidence and on spelling variations in the original manuscripts, that "amalekite" is an alternative spelling of "amlicite." thus, skousen's research into the original manuscripts used as the source for printing the book of mormon suggests that the "amalekites" and the "amlicites" are not two separate groups but the same group. the original manuscripts provide evidence that this confusion arose due to human error in transcribing the book of mormon into english, as unfamiliar names were at times spelled inconsistently, as the contents of the book of mormon were verbally dictated to the scribes. that confusion, while not having doctrinal implications for the book's contents, still exists in the book of mormon as of 2016.