Re: religious terms

At 7:45 pm -0500 12/3/01, Nik Taylor wrote:
>Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>> > I've heard that the form "Dyo" could have developed because the "-s"
>> > sounded un-monotheistic, although it sounds like a folktale kind of
>> > explanation.
>>
>> Indeed. In French, the form is "Dieu" without -s (plural "dieux", but
>>the "x"
>> is not pronounced). Still, in French final /s/ became unpronounced very
>>early,
>> so that may not be the case in Ladino.
>
>Well, normally, nouns in West Romance are derived from the accusative
>form, which would've been _deum_.
This is so in most Romancelangs:
Italian: Dio
French: Dieu
Catalan: Déu

In Romanian it survives as -zeu in Domnezeu <-- Dominu(m) Deu(m)


>Dio would be the expected evolution
>of _deum_.  Dios appears to be derived from the Latin nominative, tho I
>don't know why.
Presumably for the same reason as, e.g. 'Carlos' (Italian: Carlo), Marcos
(It. Marco) and Jesus (Italian: Gesù) ; it seems to have happened
occasionally with proper names.  I know 'Deus' is not technically a proper
noun, but it was (and is) used that way by many.

>What is it in Portuguese?
Deus

>Is there a final -s or not?
Yes.

Ray.


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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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