# Don in Spanish



## francisgranada

Hi!

Why the Latin _donum _results in _don _and not _dono _(_dueno_?) in Spanish?

(according to DRAE, it derives from the verb _donar_, i.e. if true, it doesn't seem to be a Catalan/French/etc. loanword that could explain the lack of the final "o")

Thanks in advance


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## ahvalj

There are two _done_s:
I _hacer un don_
II _don Juan_

The latter has the feminine counterpart _doña,_ which implies _domina_ and hence _dominus _(compare Romanian _doamnă_ and _domn_); _o_ is non-diphthongized because both words are usually unstressed. The former should have looked like _**dono<dōnum_ and the loss of _-o_ is unusual, but cp. _dom_ in Portuguese; I would be surprised if it is not a Gallo-Romance loan.

P. S. The only other word in _-ōnus_ or _-ōnum_ seems to be _cono<cōnus _(Wiktionary considers it inherited: Category:Spanish terms inherited from Latin - Wiktionary).


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## Ben Jamin

You have also "dueño/dueña" (master, sovereign) also from dominus/domina.


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## Cossue

As expected, given the historic treatment of nasality, the word _don _'gift' (with variants _dõ_, _dom_) is already documented in Galician in the 13th century; for example in the Cantigas de Santa María of Alfonso X:

31.30 "dar-t-ei o que trag'en _don_"
135.93 "ca á virgen dei en _don _/ meu corpo"

According to Ramón Lorenzo (_La_ _traducción_ _gallega_ _de_ _la_ _Crónica_ _General_ _y_ _de_ _la_ _Crónica_ _de_ _Castilla. Glosario_ s.v. _don) _Spanish did indeed use the expected form_ dono_, but it was later substituted by _don_, which would be a post-verbal formation (from _donar_ 'to give'). But maybe it was also under the influence of both Galician-Portuguese dom/don and of Gallo-Romance forms.


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## ahvalj

When mentioning the Portuguese _dom,_ I forgot that the Portuguese/Galician _dom_ rather represents the nasal pronunciation of the contracted vowel like in _bono>_[bõo]>[bõ] (cp. _sono>som, tono>tom, tene>tem, vene>vem, rana>rã, lana>lã_ and, with different vowels, _luna>lua, mano>mão_), so it is not relevant to Spanish where there was neither nasalization nor the drop of the intervocalic _-n-_. Concerning the deverbal formations, is there any pattern in Spanish to produce _don/perdón_ from _donar/perdonar_? The inherited pattern is rather _volar→vuelo, sonar→sueno. _Could it be a back formation after the borrowed _perdón? _


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## francisgranada

ahvalj said:


> When mentioning the Portuguese _dom,_ I forgot that the Portuguese/Galician _dom_ rather represents the nasal pronunciation of the contracted vowel ...  The inherited pattern is rather _volar→vuelo, sonar→sueno ... _


Exactly, this is what I think, as well. 





> Could it be a back formation after the borrowed _perdón? _


I don't know, but are we sure that _perdón _is borrowed? (according to DRAE and Treccani [for the Italian version] it comes from the late Latin _perdonāre_)_._


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## ahvalj

Do we have other examples with _-o_ dropped? In _capitán_ etc., despite what dictionaries write, the more likely source seems to be the French _capitaine_ or its Occitan counterpart.


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## francisgranada

ahvalj said:


> ... In _capitán_ etc., despite what dictionaries write, the more likely source seems to be the French _capitaine_ or its Occitan counterpart.


Yes, you may be right. Finally, according to the already mentioned dictionary of Treccani " *capitano *... [lat. _*capitanus_, variante del lat. tardo _capitaneus_, der. di _caput_ -_pĭtis_ «capo, testa»] ...". I.e. the form _capitanus _is not directly documented, rather supposed.


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## francisgranada

ahvalj said:


> Do we have other examples with _-o_ dropped?


There is also _son _(< Lat. _sonus_) , however _sueno _does (or did) exist as well.


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## ahvalj

But if it is inherited, why _son_ and not _**suen<sonus?_


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## francisgranada

ahvalj said:


> But if it is inherited, why _son_ and not _**suen<sonus?_


I don't know ... that's why my question . Perhaps, _don _is not the only example, maybe _son _belongs to the same group/category ... 

As to to **_suen_: even if such word existed, it wouldn't explain the drop of of the final_ -o_ in this case. Words like _buen, gran, san, don (< dominus),_ etc ... instead of _bueno, grande, santo, dueño_ ... are explainable, as they are typically preceding nouns and they are not used separately. Further more, they have exact equivalents also e.g. in Italian (_buon, gran, san, don_ [< dominus] ...) even if _don _(< _donum_) and _son_ (<_sonus_) are impossible in Italian.


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## ahvalj

For _don_ and _son_ we have the French counterparts _don_ and_ son, _which are phonetically regular there. Perhaps the Occitan words look the same as well. Plus,_ perdón : pardon._


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## Cossue

ahvalj said:


> When mentioning the Portuguese _dom,_ I forgot that the Portuguese/Galician _dom_ rather represents the nasal pronunciation of the contracted vowel like in _bono>_[bõo]>[bõ] (cp. _sono>som, tono>tom, tene>tem, vene>vem, rana>rã, lana>lã_ and, with different vowels, _luna>lua, mano>mão_), so it is not relevant to Spanish where there was neither nasalization nor the drop of the intervocalic _-n-_.



But in Galician the nasal in_ don/dom_ is a true (velar) nasal, not just a mark of nasality: most notably in western Galician, the vowel nasality was usually transformed in the late medieval centuries in a nasal consonant in the coda, so for example _ganatu _> _gããdo _> _gando _'cattle', _rana _> _rã _> _ran_. What I can't confirm here and now is that it was like that already in the 13th century, but certainly Galician have a vivid presence in the Castilian courts during that century, and the language used in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of king Alfonso is properly Galician rather than Portuguese, not just for the spelling, but also because of grammar and lexicon.

Now, there's also the loss of final -o/u after n in northeaster Galician and Western Asturian, which preceded the loss of intervocalic /n/ in Galician: _fontano _> _fontán _'stream, fountain'; NE Galician diminutives -in, f. -iña < -îa < -ina (_vecín_, f. _veciña _'neighbour'); Asturian -in, -ina (_vecín_, f. _vecina_). Although this is probably a too circumscribed dialectal feature...


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## ahvalj

Thanks, I see. Yet we all seem to agree that in Spanish it must be a loan.


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## Cossue

Oh, yes, absolutely. 

Anyway, while I don't want to push an opinion (I'm with you and others here, _don _in Castilian is probably a French/Occitan loan), I would also like to add some Castilian loanwords like _mejillón 'mussel'_, adapted either from Portuguese mejilhão, or rather from Galician mejillón.


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## Xavier61

ahvalj said:


> But if it is inherited, why _son_ and not _**suen<sonus?_


Maybe because vowels in monosyllabic words rarely dyphthongate?


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## ahvalj

Xavier61 said:


> Maybe because vowels in monosyllabic words rarely dyphthongate?


_quem>quién_
Otherwise, the final _-o_ in Spanish disappeared later than this diphthongization, which took place around the 5–8th centuries, so the words like _son_ were bisyllabic at that time.


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## Xavier61

ahvalj said:


> _quem>quién_
> Otherwise, the final _-o_ in Spanish disappeared later than this diphthongization, which took place around the 5–8th centuries, so the words like _son_ were bisyllabic at that time.


Yes, "quien" is one of those rare cases. On the other hand, we have "ven", "ten", "pon", "son" (from venir, tener, poner, ser) and more.
How can we sure that diphthongation already took place so soon? I had the notion that it developed later.


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## ahvalj

I see. Yet, your examples represent Imperatives, which are often pronounced in a special way. Is there a similar set of monosyllabic nouns?

There seem to be no ways to date the diphthongization in Spanish since it occurs in both open in closed syllables. In French, however, we find it in the former proparoxytones like _tepidum>tiède_ (vs. _dēbitum>dette_ without), which suggests that at least the lengthening of _ę_ and _ǫ_ occurred in French before the drop of the posttonic non-final vowels (which in their turn dropped before the voicing of intervocalic stops: _manicam>manche_ vs. Spanish _manga_ where this occurred after the voicing; _comitem>comte_ [without diphthongization before a nasal like in _son, bon_] vs. _conde_).

The first signs of diphthongization are attested already in Roman inscriptions: _Niepos, Dieo_ (Estudios ofrecidos a Emilio Alarcos Llorach). The voicing in Hispania occurred considerably earlier than in Gaul, as it is attested already in Lusitanian and Celtiberian inscriptions, i. e. even before the switch to Latin: _Toudadigoe<*tou̯tatikōı̯_ (Los dioses de la hispania céltica), _Langanidaegui_ vs. Latin _Langanitaeco_ (Pueblos, lengua y escrituras en la Hispania Prerromana), so Hispanic Latin must have developed _*dēbidam, *manigam_ and _*comidem _rather early.


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## Cossue

Galician _eu son_, Portuguese _eu sou_, medieval Galician _eu sõo_, point to an older, bisilabic, _*sono (oops, I misunderstood what we were talking about, sorry )._


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## merquiades

Castilian evolution of Dominus, Domina  into  Don, Doña and Dueño, Dueña

As title
Dominus Carolus > Domnu Cárlus [domnukÁrlus] (drop unaccented syllable, keep syllable with tonic accent, first and last syllable too) >  DomnkArlos (drop unaccented pretonic syllable) > DonnkÁrlos > DoñkÁrlos > Don Carlos
Domina Ana > Domna Ana [domnaÁna] (drop unaccented syllable, keep syllable with tonic accent, first and last syllable too) >  DomnaÁna (drop unaccented pretonic syllable) > DonnaÁna > DoñaÁna > Doña Ana

As noun
Dominus > Dóminum (accusative singular)> Dómnu (drop unaccented syllable, keep syllable with tonic accent, first and last syllable too) >  Duemno (accented open o makes diphthong ue in closed syllable) > Duenna (mn transforms to geminate consonante nn)  > Dueño (geminate palatize and simplify into ñ)
Domina > Dóminam (accusative singular)> Dómna (drop unaccented syllable, keep syllable with tonic accent, first and last syllable too) >  Duemna (accented open o makes diphthong ue in closed syllable) > Duenna (mn transforms to geminate consonant nn)  > Dueño (geminate palatize and simplify into ñ)


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## Xavier61

ahvalj said:


> I see. Yet, your examples represent Imperatives, which are often pronounced in a special way. Is there a similar set of monosyllabic nouns?


Yes:
don, flor, mes, res, red, sol, son, tez, voz


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## ahvalj

Xavier61 said:


> Yes:
> don, flor, mes, res, red, sol, son, tez, voz


The diphthongs _ie_ and _uo~ue_ come from late Latin open _ę_ (<_e, ae_) and _ǫ_ (<_o_), but not from closed _ẹ_ (<_ē, i, oe_) and _ọ_ (<_ō, u, au_). In the above words we find:
_don<dọno<dōnum_ (donum - Wiktionary)
_flor<flọre<flōrem_ (flos - Wiktionary)
_mes<mẹse<mēnsem_ (mensis - Wiktionary)
_res<rēs_ (res - Wiktionary; plus, this word is not inherited but borrowed)
_red<rẹte<rēte_ (rete - Wiktionary)
_sol<sọle<sōlem_ (sol - Wiktionary)
_son:_ see this thread
_tez<aptẹʦia<*aptitia_ (?; tez - Wiktionary)
_voz<vọʦe<vōcem_ (vox - Wiktionary).


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## Xavier61

ahvalj said:


> The diphthongs _ie_ and _uo~ue_ come from late Latin open _ę_ (<_e, ae_) and _ǫ_ (<_o_), but not from closed _ẹ_ (<_ē, i, oe_) and _ọ_ (<_ō, u, au_). In the above words we find:
> _don<dọno<dōnum_ (donum - Wiktionary)
> _flor<flọre<flōrem_ (flos - Wiktionary)
> _mes<mẹse<mēnsem_ (mensis - Wiktionary)
> _res<rēs_ (res - Wiktionary; plus, this word is not inherited but borrowed)
> _red<rẹte<rēte_ (rete - Wiktionary)
> _sol<sọle<sōlem_ (sol - Wiktionary)
> _son:_ see this thread
> _tez<aptẹʦia<*aptitia_ (?; tez - Wiktionary)
> _voz<vọʦe<vōcem_ (vox - Wiktionary).


Yes, right, like don<dọno<dōnum, also from closed , long "o". You answered the first question. Now the second, why lost final "o", others have pointed to Galicia and Leonese influence, and seems very plausible.


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## ahvalj

ahvalj said:


> _comitem>comte_ [without diphthongization before a nasal like in _son, bon_] vs. _conde_


A related question: why not _**cuende_ (cp. _cuente<computem/computet_)? Is it a Portuguese form or a gallicization (with the Spanish _d_ preserved)?


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## Xavier61

ahvalj said:


> A related question: why not _**cuende_ (cp. _cuente<computem/computet_)? Is it a Portuguese form or a gallicization (with the Spanish _d_ preserved)?


I think you are right, influenced by French, just like "duque" (it should be *"duz" in Spanish), maybe through Portuguese or Aragones. These are special words, used by the nobility and the clergy, so did not evolve as expected.  We call them "semicultismos", I never could find a translation for this word, I think it is a phenomenon not so common in other languages.


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## Cenzontle

> Yes, "quien" is one of those rare cases. On the other hand, we have "ven", "ten", "pon", "son" (from venir, tener, poner, ser) and more.


Yes, "ven" and "ten" (vs. "viene", "tiene") seem anomalous in not diphthongizing.  But let's not look for diphthongs in "pon" (from "pōne") or "son" (from "sunt").
Corominas's _Breve diccionario _doesn't treat "don" in detail, but the noun "son" is attributed to Old Occitan:


> _Son_, 1220-1250, prob[ablemen]te de oc[ccitano] ant[iguo] _son_ (lat. s_ŏnus_) como término de la música trovadoresca


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