History and Pronunciation of the word "Geass"

[yedijoda.livejournal.com]

Since inulovinkit brought up how people pronounce Lelouch's name, I thought it might interesting to post some information on the word "geass."

I've always thought the word "ギアス” referred to the English word "geis" (Also gaysh, geas. Pl. geasa, geise, according to the Oxford English Dictionary), which means "a solemn injunction, prohibition, or taboo; a moral obligation." This seems VERY appropriate, considering that Lelouch receives his "geass" as part of a bargain in which he is morally obligated to grant C.C.'s wish. He also seems to have a solemn injunction to use his geass to preserve his own life until he is able to grant that wish. Or something like that.


I've always pronounced the word as "guyss", but the Oxford English dictionary gives three pronunciations for it, all of which are correct:
/gesh/ (like guest, but with a sh at the end)
/geish/ (guys, but with a sh at the end instead of an s)
/geesh/ (like geese, but with a sh at the end)

I think we can safely justify the sh sound at the end going to an /ss/ sound as normal language change, so "ギアス" can be correctly pronounced as /guess/, /guyss/, or /geese/.

Here's the OED's history of the word, for any other word nerds lurking out there. The history of the word kind of gives some interesting insight into the possible future ramifications of Lelouch's geass.

"1880 S. FERGUSON Poems 63 This journey at this season was ill-timed, As made in violation of the gaysh. 1899 D. HYDE Lit. Hist. Irel. 344 He thought he saw Gradh son of Lir upon the plain, and it was a geis (tabu) to him to see that. Ibid. 373 Every man who entered the Fenian ranks had four geasa (gassa, i.e., tabus) laid upon him. 1928 Observer 22 Jan. 5/4 Apparently a man could be either: (1) Born under a ‘geis’ prohibiting certain actions on his part, or (2) Laid under ‘geis’ either at birth or any time during his life, either by divine or human agency. 1965 New Statesman 23 July 129/2 In a sense which most Irish people will know, this put Fallon under a geas, a moral compulsion, to say his bit."

Geasa in the past have been considered as a kind of curse, and in mythology have been known to actually lead to the person's death because the person under the geas was forbidden to do what he or she needed to do to save his or her own life.



So how about it? Is Lelouch's geass is a curse? Will it become a curse like Mao's geass (or will an eyepatch be enough)? And will Lelouch's geass ultimately cause his death because he must make a horrible choice between fulfilling C.C.'s wish and preserving his own life (which would be an EPIC ending)?

Comments

[rkold.livejournal.com]

I want to stress now, I've not read any spoilers for Season 2 other than seeing the new character designs so I'm just going with my feelings. ^^;

Speaking as a Clamp fangirl I've long suspected that C.C.'s true wish involves helping her to actually die. Call me crazy but she screams "Clow Reed" to me.

I'd also argue Lelouch has already been somewhat cursed after what happened with Euphie. One could even argue that C.C.'s preternaturally long life is a curse of sorts.

As for Lelouch's death.. I've always sort of thought he was going to die at the end of Geass, I can't really see him settling down to just live "happily ever after" not after all the choices he has had to make.

[yedijoda.livejournal.com]

Yeah. There's no way he can live "happily ever after" after this. Maybe C.C. and Lelouch will both die at the end.