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

[inulovinkit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Geass is sort of a curse in a way, but C.C. warned him in the first episode, saying something like "this power will make you lonely". Besides, with the power, he's already ended up doing some pretty bad stuff for the sake of his goal.

I think it might end up with his Geass eye gouged out (come on, CLAMP designed it. Someone in here is gonna lose an eye.) but I don't think he'll die. I mean, he might just end up alive and miserable OMG NOW HE'S A SUBARU CLONE. I mean, the series isn't as heavy as opposed to, X. And amidst all the carnage and death, we have some lighthearted episodes about dressing up as cats. I think to kill him off in the end would be too heavy.

I think C.C. is gonna die, though. So, perhaps, it'll end up that Ruru's Geass will end up being the cause of everyone around him's death, but he'll topple the Britannia empire and have done what he wanted to do. But--everyone including Nunally will be dead.

While that's almost worse than his death, for a series like this (that gives me heavy DN vibes) I think it would be an appropriate use of irony. Lelouch did what he wanted to do, but everyone he did it for died.

[yedijoda.livejournal.com]

That would be an awesome ending! I don't see it happening (unfortunately) but if Lelouch were to win and not have anyone to share that win with . . . that would be so wonderfully ironic.

Heh. The geass really is like the Death Note--it's both power and a curse, and how the person who uses it is probably just as psycho as Light.