Re: [tied] zau [Re: a help...]

On Tue, 03 Sep 2002 21:11:02 +0200, George S t a n a <gs001ns@...> wrote:

>>REgional the form
>>zãu is used for "God" in Dumnezãu".
>
>Could be. Anyway, Romanian linguists assume that this interjection
>is < "zeu" (god). OTOH, its ã-vowel /@/ might then be seen as a hint
>that "zãu" could be older than "zeu".

The regular form is deu > dieu > zeu. The change e > ã occurs after labials and
before -u (pilu > peru > pãr, me:lu > meru > mãr, fe:tu > fetu > fãt). Perhaps
the variant <zãu> is due to a slightly labialized pronunciation of initial
/(d)z/?

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...