vós

Forms

vós m pl or f pl by sense^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote uos and vos;^[2] Houaiss dates the stressed spelling vós to the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vōs (“you (plural)”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vos in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Cunha derives the stressed pronoun from the Latin word in stressed position, and the unstressed object pronoun vos from the same word unstressed.^[3]

The same Latin word is Galician vós, Spanish vos, Catalan vós, French vous, Italian voi and Romanian voi.^[5][1] Vosotros in Spanish and vosoutros in Galician are compounds of the pronoun with the word for “others”, and older Portuguese had vós outros.^[6][1][7]

The Latin pronoun goes back to Proto-Italic *wōs and to the Proto-Indo-European accusative *wōs, with cognates in Paelignian, Sanskrit and Old Church Slavonic.^[8][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 13th century.^[2] In the cantigas it is the stressed pronoun of the second person plural, used as a subject or after a preposition: a troubadour can say ca aqui tẽẽ vós por sabedor de trobar “for here they hold you to be skilled in making songs”.^[10][11] Notarial texts of Rianxo use it for one person as well as for several: a vós, Sancha Rrodriges.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the start vós addressed one person with respect as well as several people.^[10][11] Morais in 1813 describes it as the pronoun of epic and oratory, of speaking to many, of half-polite address to people one does not call tu, and of speaking to sovereigns.^[12] Caldas Aulete's original dictionary adds that it was also used, out of courtesy, to one person.^[7]

In modern Portuguese it survives mainly in literary, legal and religious language, in addressing God, and in ceremonial speech; elsewhere vocês has replaced it.^[7][1] In north-eastern Brazil, Navarro quotes Mário Marroquim on its everyday use in Alagoas and Pernambuco with a verb in the third person singular.^[13] The pronoun passed into the Portuguese-based creoles: bo in Kabuverdianu and Papiamentu, bos in Kristang and Guinea-Bissau Creole.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, spelt uos.^[2]
• 14th century – first record of the stressed spelling vós.^[2][3]
• 1734 – Feijó explains the acute accent of vós as distinguishing it from voz.^[14]
• 1813 – Morais describes it as the pronoun of epic, oratory and address to sovereigns.^[12]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (archaic, literary or regional) you, ye: the second person plural, as the subject or after a preposition: Vós sabeis o caminho.^[2][15][1]
2. (formal, religious) You, used to address a single person of high rank or God: Senhor, em vós confio.^[1][16][7]

Related words

• vos
• vosso
• convosco
• tu
• nós
• você

Usage notes

After the preposition com the pronoun becomes convosco.^[7] Feijó distinguished it from the noun voz “voice” by the accent and the pronunciation.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vós
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vos
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vós
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. vosotros
7. ^ a b c d e Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. vós
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. vós
11. ^ a b Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. vós
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 866
13. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. vós
14. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vós
15. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vós
16. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. vós