Here scribe 3 of 𝓞 inserted an additional and (written as an ampersand) between kindreds and tongues. Oliver Cowdery ignored the extra and when he copied the text into 𝓟. The question is whether we find multiple uses of and within the phrase “nations kindreds tongues and people” elsewhere in the Book of Mormon text. When the specific order is nation(s), kindred(s), tongue(s), and people, the Book of Mormon text puts the and only before the last conjunct:
all nations kindreds tongues and people 8 times
every nation kindred tongue and people 7 times
(The example from 1 Nephi 5:18 is excluded in this count, but two examples from the witness statements are included.) Finally, we note one example (in Alma 9:20) where or is the conjunction: “every other nation kindred tongue or people”.
In 1 Nephi 5:18 the corrected text of the original manuscript is strange because there is still no and between nations and kindreds (that is, the text reads “all nations kindreds and tongues and people”). Given the word order “nations / kindreds / tongues / people”, the Book of Mormon has no examples of and occurring between each pair of conjuncts. There is one example with and ’s between each pair, but the word order is very different:
This example is also different in that there is no all before tongues, in either the original manuscript (which is extant here for the phrase “nations and tongues”) or the two firsthand copies of it (namely, the printer’s manuscript and the 1830 edition).
The King James Bible has examples of and ’s between each pair of conjuncts, as in the following examples (all from the book of Revelation):
The last example has the same order of the four conjuncts that is typically found in the Book of Mormon, yet with and ’s between each pair of conjuncts. This example shows how the language style of the Book of Mormon may follow the King James biblical style (by having the expected order of the four conjuncts) and at the same time systematically differ from it (by having only one and ).
Given all this textual evidence, we should assume that the extra and inserted by scribe 3 of 𝓞 before tongues in 1 Nephi 5:18 is an error, perhaps influenced by the and following tongues.
Summary: Internal evidence supports Oliver Cowdery’s decision in 1 Nephi 5:18 to drop the extra and from before tongues, thus giving the expected phrase “all nations kindreds tongues and people”.