>J. 'Mach' Wust wrote:
>>Stephen Mulraney wrote:
>>>Stephen Mulraney wrote:
>>>I've heard it explained as a Germanification of "adieu". Though I'm not
>>>sure where the "-ss" is meant to come from.
>>Ah, I guess Sylvia's explanation that it comes from "a diós" accounts for
>>the "-ss" then. Also, since the Spanish form has the stress one syllable
>>further away from the initial "a" than the French "a dieu" does, it helps
>>explain why the first syllable disappeared in the German/Dutch form...
> ??? The stress is exactly on the same syllable: On the last. French _adieu_
> /a'dj2/, Spanish _adiós_ /a'Djos/.
/aDi'os/, surely. Unless I'm mistaken, the accent in Spanish indicates stress
wherever it deviates from the unmarked penultimate position.
>German stresses the first syllable (in
> native words and disregarding of prefixes), and is therefore likely to loose
> unstressed first syllables (it's common e.g. for babies who learn to speak).
Yes, I said that the Spanish form, not having a stress first syllable, was likely
to lose that first syllable when taken over as a German word.
Now that I think about the *Dutch* connection (which I hadn't heard before), I guess
that explains where the Spanish-Dutch contact occured. Someone also mentioned that
they thought "tschuess" was Austrian - again, another place where (IIRC) there was
Spanish rule at some stage.
> gry@s:
> j. 'mach' wust
s.
--
Stephen Mulraney ataltane@ataltane.net
Klein bottle for rent ... inquire within.