borrowing pronouns

[Anthony Appleyard]

  Max W Wheeler <maxw at cogs.susx.ac.uk> wrote:-
>... comparative linguistics. Corresponding to Sp. <usted>, Ptg has
> <voce^>, and Catalan has <voste`>. In renaissance Spanish we have not only
> <usted> but also <vuesarced>, <voac'e>, <vuce'>, <vuced>, <vusted>; and in
> mod. Sp dialects (including America) <buste'>. ... perfectly well attested
> <vuestra merced> Cat. <vostra merce`> the similarity between Mod Sp <usted>
> and Ar <usta:d> begins to look rather less interesting.

  (1) Ar. <usta:d> still could have played a part in it. Perhaps, once
{usta:d> had got into Spanish, it sounded like a collapsed form of <vuestra
merced> and coalesced with it.

  (2) Re borrowing a pronoun of one language into some other use in another
language: etymological dictionaries say that US English "bozo" = "fool" <
Spanish "vosotros": could it also be that the US English slang term of address
and then nickname "buster" came from the abovementioned Spanish dialect
<buste'>?, and not the English for "one who busts (= breaks) things".

  Anthony Appleyard, UMIST, Manchester, UK :: http://www.buckrogers.demon.co.uk