Re: 'dyeus'

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You spoke of "socio-allophones" which amount to distinctions of "sociolect". My position is that the observed distinctions are dialectal, not "sociolectal". We have true Latin <Dia:na>, <fla:men Dia:lis>, and <Die:spiter> beside Sabinizing <Juppiter>. What this indicates is that some of the Roman priesthoods were traditionally Latin while others were traditionally Sabine. If we postulate a Sabinizing "sacred sociolect" for <Juppiter>, we must also have a true Latin "sacred sociolect" for <Die:spiter> et al., and these "sociolects" are phonologically indistinguishable from the ordinary dialects with their everyday profane words.

***Rick sez:

Do these Sabinized <j-> words exist outside of the religious and astronical/astrological domain? If not, they could be taboo forms based on the rustic forms, which may have been perceived by Latin speakers as something akin to Gosh, Crikey, Criminy, Laword (Southern pronunciation), etc.
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###The Day-Killer-Man sed:

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No, I believe *dei-w- and *dei-n- were originally distinguished in meaning. I suspect the Jovian reformation commandeered *deiw- 'bright' (applied as an epithet to the moon, etc.) and replaced the old name of the daytime sky-god, *dein-, while elevating him to the position of supreme deity. I regard Etruscan as providing a clouded window into the pre-Jovian state of affairs; while it is not an IE language, it contains loanwords from one or more pre-Italic IE languages, and some of its divine names can be explained this way. Etr. Tin was identified with Zeus, and Tiu or Tiv was the Moon (also an appellative 'month'). I consider these to have been borrowed from *dein- and *deiw-. Also Etr. Usil 'the Sun' corresponds to Sabine <ausel> and presumably reflects pre-Jovian *h2ews-el-. My view is that the first IE-speakers to reach this area had not been influenced by the Jovian reformation, and they converted the Etruscans to this older form of IE religion. Centuries later, this religion was Hellenized, and that is what we find on mirror-scenes and the like, but some pre-Jovian relics are still identifiable.

*** Rick sez:

There does seem to be a lot in Etruscan that looks like IE. Some have speculated that it was a congener of IE that picked up so much non-IE baggage that it became either a Mischsprache or a Creole. It is sometimes seen as a Nostratic member, despite attempts by others to link it to N. Caucasian et al. I'd like to hear your views, perhaps over at Nostratic List.

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