Por Stuart Armstrong |

Xptóval, Xptóbal. I know it is the abbreviation for Cristóbal, Cristóval, Christóval, Christóbal ... Chrisptóval?? or english Christopher. I understand the X was for the Cruz or Cross (greek Cristos) - but does anyone know how the "p" got in there? The metamorphosis of Spanish names to me is interesting. Like Bethlehem changing to Bethelehem, Bethelem, and other variations and finally ending up Belén. Or José being spelled Joseph in the 1700's - was it nevertheless still pronounced José, the ph being silent? Or Yosep from Hebrew influence? I also understand that certain imported words like Bethlehem are linguistically unacceptable combinations of sounds to any Spanish-speaking person - so it _has_ to change, just as Tlaltenango is unacceptable to an English-speaking person - we _never_ start a word with TL ... Even my own name Stuart is unacceptable to many persons from India or Latin America because they insist on saying Estuart. I guess my interest in this is because when I look at old records I am obsessed with knowing how to pronounce the names as they were originally spoken - and I can't figure out how to pronounce them.

Stuart,
I am just guessing, but the 'P' in the greek alphabet is 'Rho' and in some forms of ancient Greek, like those used in Athens and Corinth, was written as 'P' or 'R'. Modern Greek uses 'P', and in the Cyrillic alphabet (e.g. introduced in Russia by St. Cyrill) its wirtten as 'P' but pronounced as 'R' (e.g. initials of soviet republic: CCCP), where the "P" stands for Respublik=Republic . Our 'P' in that alphabet would be 'Pi', like the geometry symbol.

Jaime Alvarado

Stuart:

I agree with Jaime. The letters are actually the greek letters for the name as opposed to the latin letters so not only is the P actually a "Rho" which would be pronounced like "R" but the X is not a cross at all but rather the greek letter "Chi" which would be pronounced "K" thus the Xptobal is an abbreviation for CH-R-tobal.

You will note from this book that Cristo was abbreviated Xpto and cristiano was abbreviated Xptno... all which adhere to the same pattern of abbreviation:

http://books.google.com/books?id=T_UsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=%22…

I also agree the X is the Greek letter "Chi" (which I would pronounce as an English H or a Spanish J) and the P is the greek letter "Rho", and were there from the beginning in the greek spelling of Christos: Chi-Rho-Iota-Sigma-Tau-Omicron-Sigma.
Some words that start with CH in English or C (or even Q) in Spanish are derived from words that start with X (chi) in Greek like:
Chronometer and Cronologia (from Chronos, time), Chromium and Cromosoma (from Chromos, color), Chronicle and Cronista (from Chronios, enduring; and this must also come from Chronos, time), Chiropractic and Quirofano (from Cheir, hand)...
It would be interestng to know how Christophorus (Christos-Phero, the one who carries Christ -St. Christopher is usually depicted carrying a Child Jesus over his shoulder-) became Cristobal.

Victoriano Navarro

The following is from a thread at wordreference forums on Christophorus
becoming Cristóbal found at
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2058229

By Miguel89
*/f/ could have become /v/ or /β/ after voicing, being a consonant between
vowels. /r/ to /l/ can be explained with dissimilation with the first /r/ of
the cluster. Regarding the vowel change and the apocope, I don't know how to
explain them, although there are many cases of both along Spanish history. *

By CpnPrep
*According to Menéndez-Pidal (cited
**here*
*), the evolution was as follows: *

*Christophoru > *Christóboru > *Cristóbalo > Cristóbal*

*The first and last changes are phonetic. f > b and loss of final o (< u)
are "not typical", as you said, but nevertheless can be observed in quite a
few examples besides this one: *

- *Stephanum > Esteban, trifolium > trébol, raphanum > rábano, … *
- *angelum > ángel, secundum > según, multum > muy, … *

*The change from -oru to -alu can be explained perhaps by dissimilation (to
avoid the sequence of three back vowels o-o-u, and the repetition of r, as
miguel89 suggested), and/or as an example of "the intrusion of the
unstressed elements suffix -ănu and -ălu, indigenous to the Iberian
Peninsula". *

Armando
On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 7:27 PM, wrote:

> I also agree the X is the greek letter "Chi" (which I would pronounce as an
> English H or a Spanish J) and the P is the greek letter "Rho", and were
> there from the beginning in the greek spelling of Christos:
> Chi-Rho-Iota-Sigma-Tau-Omicron-Sigma.
> Some words that start with CH in English or C (or even Q) in Spanish are
> derived from words that start with X(chi) in Greek like:
> Chronometer and Cronologia (from Chronos, time), Chromium and
> Cromosoma(from Chromos, color), Chronicle and Cronista (from Chronios,
> enduring; and this must also come from Chronos, time),Chiropractic and
> Quirofano(from Cheir, hand)...
> It would be interestng to know how Christophorus (Christos-Phero, the one
> who carries Christ -St. Christopher is usually depicted carrying a Child
> Jesus over his shoulder-) became Cristoval.
>
> Victoriano Navarro
>

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