A Retrospect on the Pronouns' Etymology

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Introduction
After a few years of research it seemed to be the correct time to summarize some of the results of the pronouns' etymology. Of course this analysis needs to be checked for "Cargo Cult Science" as defined by Richard Feynman1. Especially religious principles often have not been researched for integrity and considered proven by belief. They have been copied to millions of schoolbooks without even considering their integrity. Scientific approach should start from some assumptions which must be checked for integrity and redefined as soon as their contents contradict other proven or provable facts. The process of reconstructing the Pronouns' Etymology has not been completed, but the analysis has made a considerable progress. Some ego-pronouns may have been developed from vowel-sequences. Some of the ancient egopronouns may even consist of three vowels, which are correlating to a divine name. At some stage of history peoples may have encoded some symbolism in vowels, in their divine names and in their ego-pronouns. Most of the important names concentrate on the early common root of the sky-god Dyaus, but some correlations to the biblical name YHVH2 also exist. The existing variants of ego-pronouns suggest that various ideas have been tried out: using the central vowel (in Dyus) as an ego-pronoun in Danish dialects using the three-vowel sequence (in Dieus) as an ego-pronoun (ieu in Provencal language) using the newly introduced Claudius' Vowel Y (as a replacement for iu) in English language in the Wycliffe-bible

These variants all seem to be different usage, which are based on a common principle. For the number of evidence the idea of "Cargo Cult Science" cannot be held upright. Instead the idea these pronouns all must be derived from a common PIE-root *eg- will have to be replaced by some more sophisticated thesis. From the current state of the analysis the common PIE-root for the ego-pronoun might be replaced by the central core yu of the sky-god's name.

1 Cargo Cult Science: Richard Feynman's 1974 Caltech - Brain Pickings 2 It must be noted that the Church Fathers translated the name of God to IA (IAO), which leads to the suggestion to correlate IA to YHV(H).

The current state of the art

The ego-pronoun has been defined as follows3: I4 12c. shortening of O.E. ic, first person singular nominative pronoun, from P.Gmc. *ekan (cf. O.Fris. ik, O.N. ek, Norw. eg, Dan. jeg, O.H.G. ih, Ger. ich, Goth. ik), from PIE *eg-, nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (cf. Skt. aham, Hitt. uk, L. ego (source of Fr. Je), Gk. ego, Rus. ja, Lith. a). Reduced to i by mid-12c. in northern England, it began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts. The reason for writing I is ... the orthographic habit in the middle ages of using a 'long i' (that is, j or I) whenever the letter was isolated or formed the last letter of a group; the numeral 'one' was written j or I (and three iij, etc.), just as much as the pronoun. [Otto Jespersen, "Growth and Structure of the English Language," p.233] The form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c.1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. The dot on the "small" letter -i- began to appear in 11c. Latin manuscripts, to distinguish the letter from the stroke of another letter (such as -m- or -n-). Originally a diacritic, it was reduced to a dot with the introduction of Roman type fonts.

3 Wikipedia: I (pronoun) 4 "Etymology of I". etymonline.com. Douglas Harper, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010.

Etymological Roots
In this etymology dictionary the ego-pronoun5 is said to have been derived from the PIE-root *eg-. A number of strange similarities (especially the Provencal ego-pronoun ieu, which seems to be related to the divine name Dieu) however suggests to also consider an alternative root-principle for ego-pronouns, based on vowels or vowel-sequences. Joscelyn Godwin may have introduced the professional analysis 6 by describing the vowels' symbolism in various fields (including music, poetry, sculptures, etc.)7 the roots for some ego-pronouns may have been made of pure vowel-sequences (such as ieu), in which each vowel may have represented a fundamental symbolic idea. these ego-pronouns may be related to divine names (such as Dieu). The most important common source seems to be the PIE-skygod's name Diaus or Dyaus. The fundamental symbolic idea for each vowel (in this case I, E, U) therefore may have been a religious principle. Some of the root-vowels may have been varying over time and area, which may explain some of the variants. The I may have been varying between Y, J and I. The U may have been varying over O and Y. The E may have been varying between A, , E, O, OU, etc. Other root-vowels may have mutated to consonants, which could have introduced half or pure consonants into the sacred vowel-sequences. Some of the etymological centers of gravity used a different source for the ego-pronoun such as the in Scandinavian dialects respectively languages8, which may have been derived from the central letter of the PIE-skygod's name Dyus. Some of these ideas may have swapped to the British isles, where they may have influenced the choice of the Ipronoun (or the predecessor variant of the Y-pronoun)9. Other languages (mostly Mediterranean languages) concentrated on using a three-letter core DYUs or a four letter core DYAEUs, such as the Provencal example applying IEU as an ego-pronoun. The Claudian letter Y may have been introduced as a religious vowel symbol representing a transfer bridge between the vowels I and U. For its usage as an ego-pronoun in the early Wycliffe-bible this letter Y may also have been transformed to the English ego-pronoun I10. In later years the basic principle may have expanded (or exploded) the basic principle of vowel sequences to absurdity by evolving to the divine principle , which included all available vowels11.

The basic idea for the alternative root-principle is three-fold:

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

first person singular nominative pronoun Joscelyn_Godwin_-_Mystery_of_the_Seven_Vowels__1991_ On the Symbolism of the Vowels A-E-I-O-U (The Creation Legend encoded in a Singular Vowel) Etymology for Dy, Tiw and (I) The Hermetic Codex and The Y-Proceedings (The Y-Key to the English Ego-Pronouns) The V owels AEEIOYO in the Mithras Liturgy

Most of this etymological analysis has been documented in The Hermetic Codex II - Bipolar Monotheism, Proceedings in the Pronouns' Etymology (Overview) and Updating My 12 Paradigms (an overview & summary). Originally I investigated the idea of two involved pronouns, representing the ego-pronoun (I) as a male symbol and the thou-pronoun (Thou) as a female symbol12. The discovery of the Provencal ego-pronoun IEU however convinced me to consider a three-vowel word as the master concept for the ego-pronouns.

12 The duality of separated symbolism in two pronouns (the ego- and the thou-pronoun) may still be found in the manuscript Dyaeus, which has not been updated for recent research results.

Colors
Rather early it became clear that colors have been used as fundamental symbols as well. For the dual, threefold or even four-fold symbolism I derived some idea for assigning the colors to the pronouns' vowel symbolism. Of course symbolism may have developed in the historical course of time. Although the colors do not really influence the ego-pronouns' etymology their symbolism may have been interrelated13. The vowel I may be represented by red, the vowel U by blue, the Y by purple. These relations may help us to find missing symbolic links. Unfortunately the definitions and translations for color words are rather uncertain. Purple may vary between Lila and Scarlet Red and the translation of blue may also result in yellow. Basically the old religions tried to encode basic elements in primary colors, although until recently the theory of the understanding colors has been misunderstood. The misunderstandings and bad definitions result in poor quality in the analysis of the colors' symbolism. Still some of the historical facts may help us to understand the evolution of the ego-pronouns' etymology. Threefold color symbolism (mostly red, blue and white) is found in Greek and Roman temple-decorations14. Most of these symbolic colors red, blue, purple and white may have been applied as symbols in medieval artwork and illuminated manuscripts such as Bibles 15, but also in books like Dante's Divine Comedy. In a dual symbolism bipolarity seemed to be the early standard, in which red is a male and blue is a female symbolic element16. A twofold symbolism (in fact not really representing bipolarity) is found in Roman scripture, in which red and purple are found as basic symbolic colors. The facts have been found in Plutarch's document "The Parallel Lives" 17. The Romans do not seem to have considered blue as a relevant religious symbols, although they (in analogy to the Greeks) used blue in temple-decorations18. The threefold or fourfold symbolism may be found in the Bible, in which red, blue and purple are found as divine prescriptions for some garments and the Temple's interior. A fourfold symbolism19 has been proven by Flavius Josephus, who explains the four main colors' symbolism as representations of elements: earth (white), air (blue), sea (purple) and fire (scarlet). Josephus however expresses his uncertainty in some of his references by insertions like I suppose, I mean and it seems. Some of the colors' translations have been erroneous. The symbolic color blue has been replaced by yellow, which may have influenced or caused the loss of the colors' symbolism20. In medieval artwork yellow usually had been used as a symbol for traitors such as Judas21 and even St. Peter22.

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Joscelyn_Godwin_-_Mystery_of_the_Seven_Vowels__1991_ Red and Blue in Architecture and Artwork Illuminated Manuscripts Originally I started by considering red (and rose) as a female color and blue as a male symbolic element. This however seems to be a rather modern definition. Symbolism of Purple and Scarlet in Greek and Roman Societies Coloured Idols - The international exhibition Bunte Gtter (Coloured Gods),... and Red and Blue in Architecture and Artwork The Symbolism of the Colors Purple, White, Red and Blue Analysis of the Translation Errors in Exodus 25-4 Yellow for Judas Yellow for Saint Peter