It's Cas not Cass
This was written in fun. Please take it with a grain of salt.
This started because lately there have been so many people debating over Cas vs Cass in my FB group.
No beta, but concrit is always welcome
It's Cas not Cass
"Sam! Stop changing my phone's contacts, it's driving me nuts!" Dean hollered as he aggressively goes through his phonebook into Cas's entry, then mutters angrily about annoying brothers. Dean is so done with Sam messing with his phone. It's Cas not Cass, damnit.
Cas, who was sitting across the table from him, cocked his head to the side in question. Dean shows Castiel his name, which was written as Cass before deleting the extra s. Dean shakes his head when Sam comes in and hands beers for the two of them.
"Dude, I've changed that ages ago and you notice now?" Sam rolls his eyes in exasperation.
"It's Castiel not Cassiel, I dunno where all this extra s is coming from!" Dean was gesticulating widely at his phone and at Castiel.
Sam nodded slowly then grinned at Cas. "Yeah, but I also told you it's not because of that. A lot of languages that use the Latin alphabet kinda use single s and the double s to indicate a difference in pronunciation."
"Like a soft s and a hard z sound," Cas contributes, leaning forward. "It's the difference between 'desert' and 'dessert.' English has lost this nuance through time so sometimes the singular s can be pronounced as a z even if the position demands an s, but a double s is almost always pronounced as a soft s."
"Cas, you're supposed to take my side," Dean says shooting Cas a betrayed look. He dropped his phone on top of the book that he'd been reading for the case before this entire debate started and opened the beer Sam had given. "I'm just saying, we're in America, we speak English."
Sam looked like he was holding in his laughter and barely managed to put his beer down before he could fall ungainly onto his chair and clutch his sides. "Yeah, Dean, because American English obviously has superior phonetics. I just realise this is the reason we usually take the Latin. And why there are a lot of commonly mispronounced English words of the s variety."
"Excuse you." Dean was offended. He spoke Latin perfectly - passably, who cares? It got the job done. "It's Cas-tiel not Cas-siel, why would I give my best bud the nickname of some other angel? Wait, that is another angel right? You're not hoarding all the Cas names?"
Cas had a small smile of amusement on his face when he found the question directed at him. "I do have a brother named Cassiel." Cas took the pad he'd been taking notes for his research and flipped it onto a new page, writing קפציאל followed by כצפיל as well as two Enochian words.
"The first human inscription of our names is similar so I understand the confusion in the transliteration. The Enochian is more accurate in this regard since I am 'God's Shield' and he is 'The Speed of God.'" He showed the brothers what he'd written in his blocky script, which had immediately stopped Sam's laughter and switched from annoying brother to geeky fanboy.
"They'd still both be Cass," Sam pointed out when he gave back the notepad to Cas. "It's not mutually exclusive."
"Mutually exclusive my ass." Dean grumbled and Sam guffawed again.
"Yeah, I'd say," Sam snorted out in between laughter. Dean did not understand the joke.
"Sam," Cas said sternly, there was a warning in his voice. "You shouldn't tease Dean so."
"Yeah, Sam," Dean mimics.
"The double s still looks way cooler," Sam insists, "and the dictionary in Word doesn't accept Cas but accepts Cass."
"Oh yeah, because Microsoft is the authority. Let's see if you like the extra m in your name Samuel," Dean argues.
Sam gave Dean a look showing that he was not impressed with the argument. "Totally different rules, man."
"Uh," Cas interjects and the brothers swivels towards him. He winces. "It's actually quite similar. Sam doesn't have a double m but Sammy does."
Dean took a calming breath. It shouldn't really matter but he was so annoyed over it. Still, it wasn't his name and if Cas wanted Cass, he would suck it up. "So what do you think, Cas? Which one do you like better?"
A crease appeared between Castiel's eyebrows as he gave the question more deliberation than Dean thought it deserved. "I am an Angel of the Lord, Dean, I do not have preference between pronunciation or the written word. It is like asking what accent I like better. I was Katzpiel before I ever became Castiel, I am sure it will evolve again as language inevitably does through time. You should use what you are comfortable with, as I do not have an attachment to either form."
Dean hadn't thought of that. He'll forever be Dean Winchester and even if someone sorely mispronounces his name, he'll point them in the right direction. His identity is connected with his name, so he'll probably not answer to something else. Maybe he won't even know that his name was being called if they change it so much. But Castiel being both immortal and someone that receives prayer can't go flitting about random people praying and correcting them over some silly thing.
"But I do like the fact that this is the first time someone has cared enough to give me a shortened version of my name," Cas amends, "and to care enough for what it looks like in paper."
Dean's ears reddened considerably at the statement. He didn't even know why.
"Awwwww, Cas!" Sam jumps up and pulls Dean and Cas together. "Group hug!"
"SAAAAM!"
Bonus Scene:
Once Dean wanders off, Sam goes to Cas.
Sam: I'm still right though, yes? Yes?
Cas: I'm not getting into this.
Sam: Doesn't make me wrong!
Author's Note:
Everybody has been fighting over this lately and I laughed my head off. Really. People are so passionate about fanfiction. If you want to talk about it further in the comments, be my guest. But please respect everyone's opinions.
Anywhoo, English is not my first language. Therefore, I resonate strongly with Cas in this (plus if you have grammar advise and if you think my tenses switch too much give me a holler. I'm very receptive).
Also I'm not against American phonetics, I'm just amused that people think it's the only way to be correct.
Because I'm ESL I researched the following:
S vs SS in the English language
English words for ss pronounced as z
single s and double ss
Double consonants in English
And my very old research on Cassiel vs Castiel (Taken from my old Big Bang research):
Research of the transliteration of Cassiel versus Castiel (I largely believe kaphtziel's blogspot because a) it's not fandom related, b) it was posted in December 2004, where Supernatural could not have colored it at all and c) they cite reference... if you really want that meta and are fond of research go and peruse it.)
So there, Castiel and Cassiel are two different angels. During the transliteration of Castiel (Katzpiel, etc) scholars stumbled along the way and merged him with Cassiel (Kaphziel, Quafsiel, Kafziel, Casziel, Casiel). Transliteration means going from the Hebrew alphabet: ' קפציאל ' to the Roman letters 'Cassiel' as opposed to translate which goes like: love = amour = ai which can all be Romanized.
As an aside, I only googled the hebrew transliteration of Castiel so if anyone knows better give me a holler. Because I know Cassiel's Hebrew is קפציאל due of research but I can't find Castiel's because it gets buried in Supernatural references instead of Kabbalah references.
Disclaimer: Supernatural is property of WarnerBrothers and the CW, and is the brainchild of Erik Kripke. All use of the characters from the series is unauthorised. I am merely borrowing them for a time, and will return them promptly.