Pronunciation of "Amadeus"

Latin Learning Latin
1

Salvi sitis omnes!

I may have brought this up before, but I’d appreciate some more insight since I haven’t quite resolved it.

Secundum morem, I have pronounced my middle name “Amadeus” (a name translated from Greek Θεόφιλος) with four short vowels, and the stress on the “-de-.” I assume our friend Amadeus here does the same in Spanish. But Latinly this should be a contradiction in terms, since a pænultimate syllable may only receive stress if it is long. Moreover, the root in am?re possesses a long second ‘?’, making the logical shift to the antepænult even harder to refute out of hand (e.g. Ăm?dĕŭs).

Can we strain the name such that the ‘e’ is long? — Ămădēŭs — unlike its clear root dĕŭs, having two short vowels.

2

Given that likewise other words ending in -eus have the ‘e’ short, it makes sense that in Latin the ‘e’ should also be short.

Amadeus isn’t directly from Classical Latin, though.

3

Well, I don’t have anything to add, except that I think Chris is right, this isn’t classical Latin, it isn’t even declined correctly (Amadeum).

4

How is it not declined correctly?

5

the -deus part.

6

Right — what’s wrong with it?

7

Never mind.

8

Hi Luce
My explanation is that Amadeus is a compound name (from “amans deum”, as I read in an early dictionary) and, in common with certain other compound words in Latin, retains the accent of the original phrase (or collocation) SO “amans déum” becomes “amadéus”, despite the short penultimate. Just another exception to the law of the penultimate, where usage and the ear preside over the written rule.

I read online in a Wiki search that Mozart preferred to write his own middle-name as “Amade” (with the stress “Amadè” inferred). I happened to notice, also, some time ago in early-Modern writings that the vocative of Amadeus is Amadee, as one would expect (despite the ‘awkward looking’ double-e), and, in normal speech, surely it sounds just as Mozart preferred to write his middle name.

9

Thanks for the thoughts, Adriane! How have you been, good sir?

As for Mozart writing “Amadé,” that was the French version of his name, which he preferred when he was mingling with he French, which was often. I do like “Amadee” though vocatively. Do you like that, Amadeus?

10

Vita, Luce, bona est.
You’re right, of course. M. does prefer to use the French version of his middle name, frequently alternating Amadé and Amadè in his signature – http://www.mozartforum.com/Lore/article.php?id=229. Another French/Spanish version of the name is Amadis --‘amadís’ from ‘amans déi’? I see references on the internet to French Amédée in the 12th century but that can’t be the case, at least not with that exact spelling; that’s a modernised spelling with the double accent from the 18th C, I think.