Re: What kind of name is Jacobi?

On Mar 28, 7:15 pm, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mar 28, 7:49 am, "Emungo" <pyti...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On 28 Mar, 12:15, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mar 28, 5:21 am, "Emungo" <pyti...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 27 Mar, 18:08, Richard Herring <junk@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:

In message <1175013812.559254.142...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Richard Fangnail <richardfangn...@xxxxxxxxxx> writes

My guess would be Italian.

Surely that would be *Giacomi?

It is the name of the famous British actor
Derek Jacobi.

Then it's British. It is also the name of the famous German-Jewish
mathematician Carl Jacobi and the famous German philosopher Friedrich
Heinrich Jacobi. Draw your own conclusions.

I was surprised to find the stress is on the first
syllable.

Oh.

--
Richard Herring

I think when asking what sort of name a name is (if the question is a
linguistic one at all) one needs to distinguish, at the least, source
language and the linguistic context in which it's used. Thus, very
crudely, Jonathan: source lang Hebrew; linguistic context English (and
no doubt others). It can be meaningfully described as an English name
and a Hebrew name depending on the terms of reference. This (Jacobi)
seems to be a case where another term is required. The parameters
(source lang: Lat; ling cont: Eng) fail to get across the fact that
the name apparently arose in a German language context, part of the
common phenomenon in Gemany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia of
surnames retaining a Latin form outside the purely notarial context
(cf Pretorius etc). There is a real sense, surely, in which you can
say that Derek Jacobi has a German surname. 'Original linguistic
context' might do it.

All rather piddling stuff, I know, but of interest to me.-

Why are you ignoring the Hebrew origin?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Good point. I was concentrating on the language in which the
patronymic genitive, which was later fossilized as a surname, was
formed from the father's forename; this language was evidently Latin.
But the source language of the forename was Hebrew (or Canaanite).

(No, don't be misled by grapheus. Even if he knows what "Canaanite"
means in Semitic linguistics, it wouldn't apply to the name Ja`aqob.)

....as long as one accepts this etymology !.. What is not the case for
50% of the linguists, if no more !...

grapheus

.

Relevant Pages

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