The word in all languages, except Romanian, derives from the Latin DEUS, whose vocative form was the same as nominative – DEUS. The Romanian word is a compound formed by the same Latin DEUS, and the vocative of DOMINUS: DOMINE (meaning "Lord").
| Latin | DOMINE | DEUS |
| Romanian | Dumnezeu | |
| Portuguese | Deus | |
| Spanish | Dios | |
| Catalan | Déu | |
| French | Dieu | |
| Italian | Dio | |
Some phonological changes seen through this word:
- Although the spelling would appear to give the same pronunciation, the vowels in the Spanish and Italian forms are different: Sp. [ðjos] vs. It. ['di.o].
- The word in Romanian shows the final stage of Latin /d/ before the front vowels /i/ and /e/: [d]eus > [ʣ]eu > [z]eu.
- The vowel combination in the Latin word gives us a glimpse at the evolution of EGO in Vulgar Latin: EGO > *EO > *EU. This corresponds closely to the modern word for "I" in each language, the form varying depending on which vowel was stressed in each region: Sp. yo /jo/; Fr. je (from an earlier io > jo); Pt. eu; It. io; Rom. eu.
4 comments:
In colloquial Romanian, we pronounce it "io" (diphtong). The "official" pronunciation is "ieu" (triphtong).
Indeed, that's how I pronounce it these days as well. I've always liked the fact that it's written the same as in Italian, but pronounced very similar to Spanish (the popular "io", that is). Thanks for bringing that up.
De fapt, îmi place cum scrii tu pe pagina ta. Așa vorbiți cu adevărat. Încă nu te-am întrebat... din ce regiune a țării ești?
Sunt dobrogeancă. Acum locuiesc în Bucureşti.
Actually, we do not speak like this - not all the time, not all of us. Because of stylistic constraints, and required humour, and also mastery of Romanian, Naşa (Diacritica - Godmother, this is how I call her) uses Romanian in a way you cannot hear on the streets. I would say no longer. But yes, this is an actually brilliant Romanian.
You know, studying languages helps mastering your own.
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