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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Hebrew names of 12 Apostles
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Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 06:04:25 GMT
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In article <45v3e9$dbo@pipe4.nyc.pipeline.com>,
Mark Odegard <mlomark@nyc.pipeline.com> wrote:
>On Oct 16, 1995 20:43:20 in article <Re: Hebrew names of 12 Apostles>,
>'gusty@clark.net (Harlan Messinger)' wrote: 

>>Hebrew Ya'akov is definitely and without any twisting the  
>>source of English Jacob, Russian Yakov, and with only a  
>>little twisting the source of French Jacques and hence  
>>English Jack and Jake (which are usually nicknames). I  
>>_think_, but am not sure, that in Spanish either Iago  
>>or Diego or both comes from this (i.e., I'm guessing either  
>>Santiago or San Diego or both is named for St. James). 
> 
>Iago is indeed James, "Yako". 
> 
>Diego, I believe, is a shortening of something that roughly  
>translates as "child of God". I could be wrong. 

I've never heard this etymology.  Popular belief in Spain holds that 
"Diego" is derived from "Santiago" <- Sant(o) Iago and, therefore, 
it is usually translated as "James", but the Oxford Dictionary of First
Names (I know, leave it to me to introduce a reference work and put an
end to everyone's speculative fun) says that this is a misconception.
The authors of what, for my money, is the single most comprehensive and
accurate volume on first names in English, claim that Diego comes from
a pre-Christian name of uncertain origin popular in Iberia; the Catalan
version is "Didac" (for comparison, the Catalan for "James" is, as men-
tioned above and below, "Jaume").

The identification of pagan names with Christian ones occurs all over
Europe, but is especially frequent in Ireland.  The Irish "translation"
of my first name, for instance, is "Domhnall" (world + ?), sometimes
transliterated as Donal.  An interesting case is "Tadhg," which, though
translated as "Timothy," derives either from a cognate of Gaulish *Tasco 
or from Latin "Thaddeus" (that is, a Christian name completely unrelated to
"Timothy").  

>>Further, in Latin Jacobus, the b got nasalized into m,  
>>giving Italian Giaccomo. Finally, the c got lost, giving  
>>Spanish Jaime, Catalan Jaume, English James, Irish Seamus. 
> 
>I *think* I can understand how a "b" acquires a nasalization, 
>but I'd like to see a fuller explanation. Same for the 
>dropping of the "k". 

I can't help with IACOBVS -> IACOMUS, but [k] -> [u] in Catalan is 
common enough.  For example, IACET -> jau/jeu; PACIS -> pau; DECIT ->
diu.  The intermediate stage might be [G] (cf. O.E. beorg -> [bE@rG]
->barrow), but this is only a guess; I'm no Romantist.

I can't think of any examples for Castilian [k] -> [i]/[j], but I'm
sure they exist.  A more usual development is [T], however, e.g.
yace, paz, dice.

>And *how* does this romance pronunciation manage to get to  
>the British Isles (Celtic Christianity?) and attach itself 
>to a Germanic language? 

Celtic Christianity?  No reason to go back so early.  How did most Romance
pronunciation get to the British Isle and attach themselves to a Germanic
language?  Yes, the Normans.  They're also ultimately to blame for Seamas, 
Seumas [the vocative of which, Sheumais, gets anglicised as "Hamish"], and 
Si^am(s)/Siams (the natural Welsh development of *IACOBVS is "Iago").

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
