--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, " Ken Pfrenger" <kenpfrenger@...>
wrote:
> Does anyone have an etymology for Iove(that's Iove as in Jupiter
not Love :-)) i looked through the archive on Richard Wordinghams
site but found nothing so I thought I would ask here. I have just
seen it posted on a forum that Iove was pronounced "Yoh-way"in Latin
(which of course I am not sure of either).....this all lead to a
possible comparison to Yaweh.
>
> Not that I am buying any of this wholesale but since I don't
really have an etymology for Iove it is kinda hard to say if it is a
folk etymology or what.
>
> thanks
> Ken
*******
For starters, switching fonts gets rid of any Iove - Love
confusion. But anyway, let's spell it 'Jovis' (in the nominative
case). I and J were a single letter in the Latin alphabet, and only
split to distinguish the vowel and the consonant a few hundred years
ago. I'm far from an expert on Roman phonology, but I suspect it
was always pronounced closer to "Jo-wis" than "Yo-wis". It derives
(as does Zeus) from the Indo-European root *deiw- "shine, sky, sky-
god" and was still spelled Diovis in Old Latin. Nothing whatsover
to do with Hebrew.
Dan