Vowels for Eternity

Joannes Richter

Fig. 1: Faustina Senior coin

depicting the E at the entrance in the center between 6 columns of Apollo's temple at Delphi.

After discovering the symbolism in vocalic words 1 I started some research for vocalic words and initiated a Dictionary of vocalic words. A remarkable discovery seemed to be the purely vocalic European words for ever, long time and eternity, which often resembled some of the personal pronouns. Now it would be quite interesting to check whether the Hebrew and Indo-European peoples shared a common idea for their sacred words. The probably globally shared idea of eternal life has been expressed in archaic vocalic words, consisting of singular vowels , , and ei, which have been preserved in the regular no-words. The no-words initially have been defined and designed as not eternally2. The equivalence of the vowels , , and ei for ever, long time and eternity expresses the equivalent symbolism of the vowels a, o and e, which contrasts to the antipodes I and U. Each of the vowels a, o and e may have expressed eternity or even divine eternity, whereas I and U symbolized the non-eternal, mortal male (I) respectively female (U) elements. In Hebrew tradition the Tetragrammaton (Gods holiest name, according to Judaism) may have been pronounced by the High Priest only once a year at the Day of Atonement respectively Yom Kippur. The Tetragrammaton was pronounced three times, once for each confession3. A most impressive pronouncement requires a resonating tone, consisting one vowel or a vocalic word, possibly void of any consonants. Especially the heptagrammaton 4 seemed to be a candidate to be sung as an impressive sequence of vowels. Normally singular vowels are too clumsy for daily life. Additional consonants help to speak fluently and this may have been a good reason to insert consonants into the modern words for ever, long time and eternity.

1 2 3 4

The Creation of West-European Pronouns (Summary) Obviously we may identify the archaic ever-definition from the modern no-words for never. The Sacred Vowels in Pronouns - notes to The Mystery of the Seven Vowels (1991) Joscelyn Godwin Source: tetragrammaton: ^ K. Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae, Leipzig-Berlin, I, 1928 and II, 1931.

Vocalic Categories
Most of the vocalic words I listed in the vocabulary were related to the following categories, for each of which some samples will be listed5: God: I6, El, Iao, Iaou, Ieuo, Iaue, Aia , Jehjeh, *Iou-piter, 7, in which the last sample (the heptagrammaton ) starts with Iao Personal pronouns of the 1st person singular (Ego-pronouns): Y8, I, ieu, iau, iou, io, iu, ja, ih. Other personal pronouns: you, jij, jou, we, ... Yes-words: yes, yeah, ja, jo, j, aye-aye (ever-ever) People: eioudeon (Jewish) Matrimony: Ehe (D), huwen (NL)9 Religious symbols: (the vowels) E, Ei10, Y11 Eternity: *h iSus 12, *Xui 13, aye, ai, agg14, (ever) ieu15, eeuw 16 Singular vowels for eternity: , , and ei (ever) Words for not very old (not eternal): Nuwe, niwe, nie, nieuw (NL), new Words for oak trees (related to the ego-pronouns): (in Dutch) Eik (related to Ik), (in German) Eiche (related to Ich).

The very fact that eternity often had been based on the same words as the Ego-pronouns (for example ieu) did lead to the idea of a civilization, which in analogy to the Egyptian aim for eternal life had encoded eternal life into vocalic words.

The ego-pronouns Ic, Ih and the Oak Trees

I checked some words for oak trees, which have been known for their long enduring lifetime and have been adored as deities for their eternal life. The oak had been devoted to Jupiter. The oaks may have been used to define the ego-pronouns. In Dutch the word Eik may be correlating to the ego-pronoun Ik, and in German Eiche to the ego-pronoun Ich. These samples however seem to be unique and do not correspond to other naming conventions for oak trees.

5 Source: Dictionary of Sacred Words (Dictionary of some genuine vocalic words) 6 In Divina commedia - Paradiso, Canto XXVI Dante documents the initially applied divine name as I and subsequently as El: I s'appellava in terra il sommo bene onde vien la letizia che mi fascia; e El si chiam poi ...'I' was the name on earth of the Sovereign Good, whose joyous rays envelop and surround me. Later 'El' became His name... 7 Source: tetragrammaton: ^ K. Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae, Leipzig-Berlin, I, 1928 and II, 1931. 8 Wyclif's Bible Ego-pronoun 9 Source: Dictionary of Sacred Words (Dictionary of some genuine vocalic words) 10 E - of the E-symbol Engraven Over the Gate of Apollos Temple at Delphi, documented by Plutarch 11 Y-Symbol for Albertus Magnus (1200-1280 AD) - Symbola aureae mensae duodecim nationum by Michael Maier typis Antonij Hummij, impensis Lucae Iennis, 1617 - 621 pages 12 Proto-Indo-European 13 Proto-Germanic 14 Middle English: ever, always 15 West Frisian : Century, centennial from (from Proto-Germanic *' ui ) 16 Dutch: century

The ego-pronouns ic and ick may also be related to the Latin word hic. The adverbs hic, ille and hoc have been used to design a number of yes-words in the Roman Empire. The ego-pronouns ic and ick however may also have been derived from southern-German dialect ih. Ih may be using the letter H as a vowel (Eta, ) and fits into the vowel-system.

Vocalic words with Singular Vowels

The Vowel I
The vowel I is a special vowel, which equally has been used to designate a God (documented by Dante) and to designate an ego-pronoun (in modern English). In an English spoken version the word aye may also be considered as equivalent to the egopronoun I and to the Middle-English word aye for ever, expressing a yes-word. In this case the divine name, the ego-pronoun, an obsolete yes-word and the Middle-English word aye for ever are equivalent. That is: The vowel I may have been symbolizing everlasting concepts, including an ego-pronoun and an everlasting God simultaneously.

The vowel U
Albanian uses an Ego-pronoun un, but according to Vladimir Orel Old Albanian un basically consists of a one-vowel pronoun u followed by the particle -n.17 A similar construct has been used in ti and the (dialectal) tin 18. Another proof for the one-vowel pronoun u may be found in Arberesh language (Italy, especially Calabria ), which also uses a one-vowel Ego-pronoun u.

The vowels , , and ei

The vowels 19, , and ei (symbolizing ever in the no-words20) are singular vocalic words. These words can be extended at any length and singing these vocals may produce a sensation of eternal sound, probably promising eternal life or calling everlasting powers to the auditorium. The absence of any consonant may have been important to avoid any stops in the flow, which would terminate the sensation of eternity... The vowel E has been analyzed in the E-symbol Engraven Over the Gate of Apollos Temple at Delphi, as documented by Plutarch. This symbol has also been identified as an ie- or (in a reversed reading direction) as an ei-vowel combination. As explained by Plutarch this E-letter has to considered as a religious symbol. , Thou art one may be compared to I Am that I Am21 - a common English translation of the response God used in the Hebrew Bible when Moses asked for His name (Exodus 3:14). "E may also be considered as an abbreviated pronoun (from: the Greek pronoun Ego?) and/or IE as an abbreviation of the multi-vowel divine name (IEHOUAH). I merely found one A-based ego-pronoun. Ticinese Lombard uses a as an ego-pronoun. Up to now no O- or H-based ego-pronouns have been identified.

17 The Sacred Vowels in Pronouns - notes to The Mystery of the Seven Vowels (1991) Joscelyn Godwin 18 From: un - Wiktionary 19 = Old English adverb ever, always Descendants: English/ Scots: ay/aye 20 Source: The Wiktionary entry no 21 Source: I Am that I Am

Yes = Ever, No = Never

The No-words seem to be more archaic than some of the yes-words. The core for the nowords may be very short (one singular vowel) and therefore very old indeed. Some yeswords may relate to this system but the system may be blurred by overriding conventions for yes-words in the Roman occupation areas. In English language the answers to positively framed questions ("Will he go?") were yea and nay.22 An archaic word for yes is aye, which by permutation of the vowels may be converted to yea and in a negated form may be constructed as nay(e). According to the Wiktionary entries we identify a strong correlation between the yes-words (respectively the roots for the nay-words) and the archaic words for ever. Obviously the ancient yes-responses expressed an always-response, whereas no did mean never. Nay has been derived from Middle English nai, nei, from Old Norse nei (no), contraction of ne (not) + ei (ever). More at no. The Wiktionary entry no documents: From Middle English no, na, from Old English n, n (never), from Proto-Germanic *nai (never), *n (not), from Proto-Indo-European *ne, *n, *ney (negative particle), equivalent to Old English ne (not) + , (ever, always). Cognate with West Frisian n (no), West Frisian nea (never), Dutch nee (no), Low German nee (no), German nie (never), Icelandic nei (no). More at nay. Aye has been derived from Middle English aye, ai, agg, from Old Norse ei, ey, from ProtoGermanic *'ui ever, always (compare Old English , , Middle Dutch ie, German je), accusative of *aiwaz age; law (compare Old English (w) law, West Frisian ieu id, Dutch eeuw century), from Proto-Indo-European *h iuslong time (compare Irish aois ; age, period, Latin vum eternity, euum (medieval) : eternity, Ancient Greek ain). The singular vowel in the word no, which is equivalent to (in the word nay) expressed ever and the root ei (in Old Norse nei) also symbolizesEver. Equivalent words for ever are a long time and always. In West Frisian (in which ieu is translated to century) a long time must have been understood as 100 years, respectively a century. The equivalence of , , and ei (symbolizing immortality in ever) expresses the equivalent symbolism of the vowels a, o and e, which contrasts to the mortal antipodes I and U.

The Yes-Words "Ol", Oc and Si

By late- or post-Roman times Vulgar Latin had developed two distinctive terms for signifying assent (yes): hoc ille ("this (is) it") and hoc ("this"), which became ol and oc, respectively. Later "ol" mutated into "oui" for modern French. In the 14th century, the Italian poet Dante mentioned the yes distinctions in his De vulgari eloquentia: "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("some say 'oc', others say 'si', others say 'ol'"): oc languages (in southern France); si languages (in Italy and Iberia) and ol languages (in northern France). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the classical Latin sic, "thus", such as the Italian s, Spanish and Catalan s, Portuguese sim, and even French si (used when contradicting another's negative assertion). Sardinian is an exception in that its word for "yes", eya, is from neither origin. Instead the Sardinian yes-word seems to correlate with the English aye of yea.

22 Yes and No

Yes-words in German dialects

Yes-words in German dialects23 correlate to some Ego-pronouns for distant regions (Jou, Jau Iu, yo) an do not relate to any of the Latin adverbs hic, ille, sic: Jou, Jupp, Jo, Iu, Jepp, Joa, E, "Jau", "Yo","Jodihoo", "Jausen", "ACK", "k", "y", "japp", "ye", "ya", "yihaa".

New (Nieuw) = not very old

Officially Nuwe, niwe and nie, are Medieval Dutch (" Middle-Dutch" ) words for the modern Dutch word " nieuw" , which means " new" .24 The Dutch word nieuw (new) may also be understood as a negation for West Frisian (ieu is translated to century). Therefore nieuw (new) is equivalent to not a century old or not very old.

23 Source: Yes-words 24 Source: nieuw

The role of the I and U-vowels

The I and U-characters are vowels as well and we should ask ourselves what role the male (I) respectively female (U) are playing in a symbolism for eternity? As an individual mortal male or female persons could not manage to prolong their life to eternity. The only chance to reach eternity was procreation in a matrimonial couple (as an image of God). Only the androgynous couple was allowed to procreate (in creating children just like the Creatordeities). This concept links man, the divine name, eternity, procreation, and matrimony. In a genuine dedicated design all of these words should be designed as vocalic words.

The Y-Vowel
In Wyclif's Bible the personal pronoun of the first person singular has been defined as an upper case character Y. This corresponds to the first letter of the trigrammaton YHW and the tetragrammaton YHWH. Albertus Magnus' Y-Symbol (transforming a combination of I and V to a Y) may also symbolize the combination of a male character I and a female symbol U as an androgynous symbol Y. Capitalizing Y may have been selected to symbolize the divine concept in the Y-character. In fact the Y-symbol as held up by the androgynous human being in Symbola aureae mensae duodecim nationum may refer to the Yodh-character and to the Ego-pronoun25 as defined in Wyclif's Bible.

Fig. 2: Y-Symbol for Albertus Magnus (1617)

Symbola aureae mensae duodecim nationum by Michael Maier - typis Antonij Hummij, impensis Lucae Iennis, 1617 - 621 pages

25 Personal pronoun of the 1st person singular

Divine Names
This section will merely list an overview if e few divine names: IHVH, Dyaus, Dyus, Dyeus, IUpiter and Dieu. Basically all names apply a leading vowel I or Y, a central vowel A, , E or O and a trailing vowel U or O. For symmetry the translation of the original Hebrew name IHVH might be discussed. The name Iau instead of Iao would provide us with standard U-vowels at the trailing position. The oldest vowels may have been I, A and U. In later eras the , E, O and Y may have been added to this list. Original name IHVH Dyaus, Dyus, Dyeus *IOU-piter Dieu Jupiter (Latin) God (French) Translation Iao (into Greek) Leading vowel I Y Y Y I I Central vowel A A E O E Trailing vowel O U U U U U

Table 1: Divine names IHVH, Dyaus, Dyus, Dyeus, IU-piter and Dieu

IHVH
The Bible does not explain the symbolism in the name IHVH nor the symbolism chosen for the Greek translations. Statistical analysis of the Greek translations however suggests to consider the trigrammaton (Iao) as the best-fit transformation, in which the vowel I has been left unaltered, the letter H is translated to alpha () and the V translates to Omega ().

Dyaus, Dyus, Dyeus

The vocalic, central core yau for the PIE-skygod Dyaus contains a leading Y and a trailing U containing a central vowel a, or e.

IU-piter
Officially the root for the Latin name Jupiter is *IOU, which is a trigrammaton containing a leading I and a trailing U containing a central vowel O. Originally the name may have been d'IU-piter, including a leading D-consonant.

Dieu
The vocalic, central core ieu for the French Dieu contains a leading I and a trailing U containing a central vowel E.

Other divine names

Massey's overview lists a great variety of divine names which seem to fit into this scheme26: It is the religious community, not the race, that will account for the Jews who emigrated to the ends of the earth, and for the names of the Jewish god, who was the Egyptian Iu, Phoenician Iao, Hebrew Iah, Assyrian Iau, Egypto-gnostic Ieou (greater and lesser), Chinese Iaou, Polynesian Iho-Iho, Dyak Iaouh, Nicobar Islands Eewu, Mexican Ao, Toda Au, Hungarian Iao, Manx Iee, Cornish Iau, Welsh Iau (greater and lesser), Hebrew IaoSabaoth, Chaldean Iao-Heptaktis, Greek Ia, and IE27, Latin Jupiter and Jove.

The Root IUI for Divine Names

A Proto-Indo-European root *h iSus 28 for everlasting may result in PIE-gods Dyaeus resulting in e.g. Zeus. Proto-Germanic root *Xui 29 for everlasting may result in IU-cores and UI-cores for Germanic Gods simultaneously. This would explain the UI-name Tuisto or Tuisco in parallel to the IUname Ziu30.

Design rules for the Ego-pronouns and divine names

The three fundamental components for the vowels in the Ego-pronouns are: Leading vowel: a mortal male symbol I, respectively Y Central vowel: one of the vowels a, , e, o, which may be considered as a symbol for eternity and immortality. Trailing vowel: a mortal, female symbol U

With these components we may derive the following set of potential three-letter words for the egopronouns iau, iu, ieu, and iou. Another subset of two-letter words for the ego-pronouns may be derived from the three-letter words by skipping the trailing vowel u, resulting in ja, j, je, and io. Examples for the divine names are: Dyaus, Diau, Diu, Dieu, Deus and Diou respectively Dias, Dis, Dies, Dio and Dios. Indeed some of these names have been well known as divine names: Dieu, Deus, Dio and Dios The corresponding divine names related to these pronouns may be derived by alternatively adding a header consonant D and/or a trailing consonant s. In a few cases the central vowel may be skipped, for example in: Dius31, IU-piter32 The ego-pronouns iau, iu, ieu, iou, ja, j, je, and io may be newer than a previous substrate layer of ego-pronouns, which are corresponding to man, me, moi, etc

26 source: Ancient Egypt The Light of the World (Vol. 1-page 501) by Gerald Massey 27 Correlating to EI and the E in Of the word EI engraven over the gate of apollo's temple at delphi. - Moralia, vol. 4 see details and photographs in: E - of the E-symbol Engraven Over the Gate of Apollos Temple at Delphi 28 Proto-Indo-European 29 Proto-Germanic 30 Corresponding names in other Germanic languages are Gothic Teiws, Old English Tw and Old High German Ziu, all from Proto-Germanic *Twaz (*Twaz). 31 Sicilian 32 Latin

Summary
According to Swadesh in any language the most important word is the ego-pronoun. The most important characters are the vowels the non-vowels merely are to be considered as additional consonants, as helping mates to produce powerful vocals. Vowels seem to have played an important role in designing the ego-pronouns, the divine names and the yes- and no-words. The most powerful symbols (the vowels) will be preferred for the most important words (the ego-pronoun). The oldest vowels may have been I, A and U33. In later eras the , E, O and Y may have been added to this list. Therefore the oldest pronouns may be a construct containing I, A, and/or U. One of the oldest words I found is the word no respectively na, which contains a negated vocalic core o respectively a. These vowels have been identified as a symbol for everlasting, always. Therefore in ancient eras the vowels o and a must have symbolized eternity 34. These one-vowel expressions are extremely short and for this reason they probably belong to the oldest of all English or Indo-European words. The longest vocalic word I found is a Hebrew heptagrammaton , but the majority of vocalic words are three-vowel or four-vowel words, most of which are based on I, U and one of the other vowels. An exception to this rule is Iao, which ends in an Omega-vowel instead of a U. According to Dante religious concepts may have started with very short vocalic words such as I (or the letter Yod) and El. Another ancient divine and vocalic names is IU (Jupiter). Another concept has been introduced by religious vocalic symbols for eternity, such as E and Ei at the Apollo-temple in Delphi. Except for the special, mortal symbols I, Y and U all other vowels a, 35, e, o may have represented eternity. The vowels 36, , and ei are singular vocalic words, symbolizing ever in the no-words for Nordic languages37. Some of the yes-words (such as aye) also refer to the everconcept - probably to enhance the everlasting value of the yes-response. The ego-pronouns iau, iu, ieu, iou, ja, j, je, and io may be newer than a previous substrate layer of ego-pronouns, which are corresponding to man, me, moi, etc. Generally the younger egopronouns have been designed by composing a leading vowel I, one of the vowels a, 38, e, o (represented eternity) and a trailing vowel U. These constructs (ieu, iau and iou, etc.) represented the first androgynous man, which had been created immortal by the gift of eternal procreation. The corresponding divine names (Dieu, Diou, Dios, Dio, etc.) related to these ego-pronouns may be derived by alternatively adding a header consonant D and/or a trailing consonant s to the egopronouns (ieu, iau, iou, io, etc.).

33 Source: Ur-vowels in The Runes' Dictionary by Udo Waldemar Dieterich (1844) 34 Etymological roots for the word No: From Middle English no, na, from Old English n, n (never), from ProtoGermanic *nai (never), *n (not), from Proto-Indo-European *ne, *n, *ney (negative particle), equivalent to Old English ne (not) + , (ever, always). 35 Represented by H (Eta, the vowel ) 36 = Old English adverb ever, always Descendants: English/ Scots: ay/aye 37 Source: The Wiktionary entry no 38 Represented by H (Eta, the vowel )