--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
> The old nom.sg. was replaced by the fossilised vocative
> _phrase_ *djeu p&2ter 'O Father Sky!' > *dju:-pater > iu:piter ~
> iuppiter. No connection with YHWH.
Kennedy's 'Latin Primer' gives an intermediate form (antecedent
to 'dju:-pater' above) as _dieu pater_. If I were Alex, I might
cite this as evidence that French derives directly from an ancestor
of Latin, rather than deriving French _Dieu_ from the probable
doublet _deus_ 'god' (which has its own doublet in Latin -
_di:vus_ 'divine') :) Plus ça change, c'est la même chose.
There's a fifth Latin word in this family - _di:vum_ 'sky'. I
suppose it may just be a special use of the adjective _di:vus_, but
the parallel is interesting.
Is there any possibility of a laryngeal hiding in *dye:us? If there
is, we could turn the tables and suggest that rather than Jove <
YHWH, we have YHWH < *dje:us - not that I believe it.
Incidentally, the etymology of Jupiter comes under the word index on
my site. The cognates of Jupiter are mentioned, for instance, at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/6416, though there is
not a clear exposition such as Piotr just gave.
Richard.