On Fri, 18 Oct 2002 22:12:38 -0000, "Richard Wordingham"
<
richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>'Lope' is not the only Spanish name ending in '-e' when one would
>expect '-o'. 'Felipe' (ultimately from Greek Philippos) is another
>example. Is it possible that the '-e' is actually a survival of the
>vocative ending?
Good idea. Alas, what little information I have on old Castilian onomastics
(mainly an article "La apócope de la vocal en castellano antiguo", by Rafael
Lapesa, 1951) tells a different story. It is well known that in Old Castilian
documents final -e was apocopated in far more cases than in modern Spanish (e.g.
prinçep, noch, cort, present, romanz). In some cases even -o was deleted,
especially in proper names, and especially in the combination name + patronymic.
A form like Hernán (< Fernando) is a good example that has survived. This also
solves the mistery of the /p/ in Lope. The name was Lobo, apocopated to Lob
(e.g. an attested form Lob Diez). In final position, the distinction between -b
and -p was neutralized, and we have many attested cases of Lop in medieval
documents. When -e was restored (modern: príncipe, noche, corte, presente,
romance), it was also restored on apocopated forms like Lop or Felip, giving
Lope and Felipe.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...