Arabic /usta:dh/ Persian /usta:d/ Span /ustedh/

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

Rick Mc Callister <rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu> wrote:

>	Are you sure it has "vuestra merced"?
>	Because if it does, then it means that the entry in question is
>unreliable. "Vuestra merced" is a hypercorrect form of "vuesa merced".
>Given that vuestra/o/s is the possesive form of the PLURAL vosotros/as, the
>form betrays an ignorance of grammar. Vos is the corresponding singular
>form of vosotros [as well as tu/, of course]. The possessive form of vos in
>the era we're speaking of is vuesa/o/s [now tu is used instead in countries
>that still use vos]. In Old Spanish, vos was the plural form and seems to
>have gradually conformed to the same usage as French vous, given that
>vosotros later arose to distinguish the plural form.

There is no special connection between nuestro/vuestro and
nosotros/vosotros as opposed to nos/vos.  The Latin possessives
for 1&2pl. were [nos:] noster, nostr- and [vos:] vester, vestr-
(OLat/VLat. voster, vostr-).  Sp. nuestro and vuestro descend
directly from these Latin forms.  Besides nostro and vostro,
Vulgar Latin also had the reduced variants *nosso and *vosso >
Spa. nues(s)o, vues(s)o, but there never was a difference in
meaning.

<Usted>, <vusted> is thought to be derived from <vuestra merced>
because of the -st-, which is difficult to explain if the form
came from <vuesa merced>.  <Vuesa merced> *is* the source of the
variants <vuesarced>, <usarced>, and forms with <vuesa>, not
<vuestra>, are also the source of <usencia> (<vuecencia>,
<vuecelencia>) <-- <vuesa excelencia>, or <usi'a> (<usiri'a>,
<usen~or'ia>, <vuesen~ori'a>) <-- <vuesa sen~ori'a>.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam