This is an excerpt from my new etymological
dictionary of Basque.
You can get a full copy from one of the following
sites:
https://www.createspace.com/4812609
http://amzn.com/1499595468
http://www.amazon.it/dp/1499595468
http://www.amazon.de/dp/1499595468
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1499595468
A First Etymological Dictionary of Basque
as an Indo-European Language
–
Basque Native, Basic Lexicon
by Gianfranco Forni
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
Introduction
Origin of this dictionary
This dictionary is an evolution of a discussion paper published in The
Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES) in 20131. That paper was
designed as a step-by-step demonstration that Basque is an IndoEuropean language. For this reason, many of its sections dealt with
detailed methodological issues and statistical analyses of findings,
while actual etymologies were scattered across various sections,
according to historical phonology and other criteria. Furthermore, the
discussion paper was followed by my reply to the critics2, where I
amended some etymologies. As a result, it is a fairly laborious task
to extract Indo-European etymologies of Basque native, basic
lexicon from that paper, so I thought it might be useful to re-organize
those etymologies, in order to make them easily accessible to a
wider audience. That’s why I decided to write the present
dictionary. Besides re-arranging entries alphabetically, I have made
several further changes with respect to my original article:
the introductory section on historical phonology (i.e. sound
laws) has been simplified, so it’s now easier to understand;
a new theory on the loss of plosives is proposed3;
every single etymology has been revised; some have been
changed; a few have been discarded;
a few new etymologies have been added;
each entry has been significantly expanded by adding
Basque dialect variants, additional Indo-European cognates
and additional references to sources;
several indices (including a semantic one) have been added.
1
Gianfranco Forni – Evidence for Basque as an Indo-European Language.
In: J. P. Mallory (Ed.) - The Journal of Indo-European Studies, Volume 41,
Numbers 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2013.
2
Gianfranco Forni – Evidence for Basque as an Indo-European Language:
A Reply to the Critics. In: J. P. Mallory (Ed.) - The Journal of Indo-European
Studies, Volume 41, Numbers 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2013.
3
see “Historical Phonology” section for details.
2
Introduction
Acronyms
Basque dialects and variants:
A
Aezkoan Basque
B
Bizkaian Basque
c
common Basque
G
Gipuzkoan Basque
HN
High Navarrese Basque
L
Lapurdian Basque
LN
Low Navarrese Basque
R
Roncalese Basque
S
Salazarese Basque
Sout
Southern dialect of Alava
Z
Zuberoan Basque
Other acronyms:
adj.
adjective
C
any consonant
fem.
feminine
IE
Indo-European
masc. masculine
n.
noun
PIE
Proto-Indo-European
V
any vowel
For bibliographical acronyms, see next section.
3
Introduction
Bibliography
AD
Douglas Q. Adams – A Dictionary of Tocharian B – Rodopi
1999 – ISBN 978-90-420-0435-1
B
Robert Beekes, Lucien van Beek – Etymological Dictionary
of Greek – Brill 2010 – ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4
DERK
Rick Derksen – Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic
Inherited Lexicon – Brill 2008 – ISBN 978-90-04-15504-6
JIES
Gianfranco Forni – Evidence for Basque as an IndoEuropean Language. In: J. P. Mallory (Ed.) - The Journal of
Indo-European Studies, Volume 41, Numbers 1 & 2,
Spring/Summer 2013
K
Alwin Kloekhorst – Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite
Inherited Lexicon – Brill 2008 – ISBN 978-90-04-16092-7
KR
Guus Kroonen – Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic
– Brill 2013 – ISBN 978-90-04-18340-7
M
Ranko Matasović – Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic –
Brill 2009 – ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1
M-A
James P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams – The Oxford
Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-IndoEuropean World – Oxford University Press 2006 – ISBN
978-0-19-92668-2
4
Introduction
MART
Hrach K. Martirosyan – Etymological Dictionary of the
Armenian Inherited Lexicon – Brill 2010 – ISBN 978-90-0417337-8
MICH
Luis Michelena – Fonética Histórica Vasca - 3rd edition, 1985
– San Sebastián: Publicaciones del Seminario de Filología
Vasca ‘Julio de Urquijo’ de la Excma. Diputación de
Guipúzcoa
O
Vladimir E. Orel – Albanian Etymological Dictionary – Brill
1998 – ISBN 90-04-11024-0
T
Robert L. Trask – The History of Basque – Routledge 1997 –
ISBN 0-415-13116-2
T-E
Robert L. Trask – Etymological Dictionary of Basque – 2008
(published online as a PDF file)
V
Michiel de Vaan – Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the
other Italic Languages – Brill 2008 – ISBN 978-90-04-167971
Of these, the most important sources are T, T-E, M-A and M – plus,
of course, JIES.
5
Introduction
Scope
Only Basque native, basic lexicon4 of Indo-European origin is
included in this dictionary.
Readers interested in the etymology of other Basque terms
(including e.g. loans from other languages, Basque-internal
etymologies, etc.) should refer to Michelena’s and Trask’s work –
especially T and T-E.
The present dictionary can be seen as complementary to T-E, as it
proposes Indo-European etymologies for many entries labelled as
“OUO” (“of unknown origin”) in T-E.
Methodology
The present dictionary strictly follows the standard comparative
method, i.e. it derives Basque lexemes from Proto-Indo-European
via regular sound laws, as described in the next section.
For an extensive discussion of methodological issues, please refer
to my original article in JIES.
4
for an in-depth discussion on the concept of basic lexicon, see Gianfranco
Forni - Maximizing the reliability of macro-comparisons. General criteria and
a detailed proposal for the semantic aspects. In: Atti del Sodalizio
Glottologico Milanese, vol. IV n.s., Edizioni dell'Orso, Milano 2011, ISBN
978-88-6274-267-2.
6
Historical Phonology
Historical Phonology
This dictionary uses Pre-Basque (as reconstructed by MICH, T and
T-E) as its starting point. Therefore, this section will first provide a
brief outline of Pre-Basque, followed by the sound laws that can
derive Pre-Basque from Proto-Indo-European.
For the sake of legibility, in the present section reconstructed protophonemes are not preceded by an asterisk; for example, protophoneme *p is simply written p.
Pre-Basque: an internal reconstruction
Based on dialect variations, other internal evidence, and
phonological treatment of loans, Michelena and Trask (MICH, T,
T-E) reconstructed so-called Pre-Basque, i.e. the phonology of
Basque around two thousand years before present. Such work,
combined with an analysis of known loans, led to the creation of a
list of native Basque terms and the reconstruction of their PreBasque phonological shape.
Pre-Basque is an excellent starting point for any historical linguist
investigating the affiliation of Basque to other language families,
because it:
filters out any terms that have already been recognized as
loans, and only reconstructs native Basque terms;
provides an accurate segmentation of Basque lexical items,
based on internal evidence;
identifies the common sources of current dialectal variations;
provides a standardized inventory of phonemes and
phonotactic rules;
is not based on any assumption about external affiliations of
Basque.
The phonemic inventory reconstructed for Pre-Basque is the
following (T, chapter 3):
7
Historical Phonology
Fortes
(-p-)
-t-
-k-
-tz-tz
-ts-ts
-nn-nn
-ll-ll
-rr-rr
Lenes
b-b-
(d-)
-d-
g-g-
z-z-
s-s-
n-n-
l-l-
-r-
Vowels
i
e
a
o
u
(marginal phonemes are within brackets)
Lenes never occurred word-finally. Fortes5 never occurred wordinitially (and plosive fortes never occurred word-finally, either).
Pre-Basque (like Basque) has two lenes and two fortes sibilants: <s>
and <ts> are apico-alveolar, whereas <z> and <tz> are laminoalveolar.
Pre-Basque had no */m/ phoneme at all6.
Trask (T 128, 133-136, 172-176, 180-183) reconstructs that no
word in Pre-Basque could begin with any of /p, t, k, d/ or /m/,
and illustrates Martinet’s hypothesis that, before Pre-Basque, words
could begin with /ph, th, kh/, which later weakened to /h/ and were
eventually lost.
Also note that that *h was not phonemic in Pre-Basque, and is
therefore conventionally represented as *[h].
Finally, Pre-Basque had no word-initial consonant clusters (T 127).
As Pre-Basque is largely accepted as a valid reconstruction by
Vasconists, this dictionary builds upon Pre-Basque, as reconstructed
by Michelena and Trask in MICH, T and T-E: with few, minor
exceptions, Pre-Basque is the starting point for the Indo-European
etymologies of Basque basic, native lexicon proposed in this
dictionary.
5
Fortes consonants can be conventionally represented either by capital
letters or by geminates. This dictionary will adopt the latter convention.
6
as we will see below, it actually had a marginal *m phoneme, deriving from
primary or secondary *mm.
8
Historical Phonology
Introduction to sound laws
The PIE and Pre-Basque sound systems are readily available (e.g.
in M-A and T respectively). An intermediate stage, called ProtoBasque in the present research, has been tentatively reconstructed,
and can be derived from a first set of sound laws listed below. It
should be borne in mind, though, that any reconstructed
protolanguage is somewhat arbitrary, since it tries to depict a
prehistoric language at some given point in time, whereas the
evolution of PIE into Pre-Basque was a continuous sequence of
diachronic changes. It is therefore more useful to focus on sound
laws (i.e. the sequence of changes) than on any given sound
system at some intermediate stage.
Sound laws will be listed in chronological order.
Only well-attested sound laws are listed below, whereas scarcely
attested sound laws are omitted. For a full discussion of sound laws,
please refer to JIES.
The following conventions will be used for PIE phonemes:
three laryngeals7 will be used, namely h1, h2, h3, while hx will
represent a laryngeal of unknown type (sometimes written
as H by other authors);
semivowels will be written as w and y, while some authors
use u̯ (or u) and i̯ (or i);
aspirates will be represented as Cʰ (e.g. dʰ), labials as Cʷ
(e.g. kʷ) and palatals as g̑ , k̑ , etc.
7
so, for the sake of uniformity, M-A’s h2, h4 and ha (=h2/4) will all be
“normalized” to h2
9
Historical Phonology
Main sound laws linking PIE to Proto-Basque
Laryngeals display an unremarkable behavior:
h1(e) > e; -Vh1(-) > -V(-)
h2(e) > a; eh2 > a; exception: h2eu > eu
h3(e/o) > o
m is generally fricativized to /v/ (probably via [ṽ]), while rare mm
(whether primary of from nm) is preserved as m:
m>v
nm, mm > m
o usually yields u (with some exceptions):
o, ō > u (/o)
Dental stops assibilate before /u/:
tu, du, dʰu > tsu
Initial consonant clusters are not permissible:
CC- > CVC- (anaptyxis)
(exception: st- > s-).
10
Historical Phonology
Non-labial word-initial plosives are fricativized8 (a phenomenon
closely resembling initial consonant mutations found in Celtic
languages, such as Welsh, Breton and Scottish Gaelic); wellattested cases include:
p- > f- (possibly [φ])
t- > θk-, k̑ - > xbʰ- > v- (possibly [ ])
d-, dʰ- > ðg̑ ʰ- > - (exception: g̑ ʰC- > gC-)
while labialized initial consonants generally yield b:
kʷ-, gʷ-, dw- > bsw- > b- (exception: swVr- > sVrw-)
This set of sound laws does not apply to verb roots: any
consonant can occur in root-initial position in verbs (T 178-179),
because both finite and non-finite verb forms always have one or
more prefixes before the root. Since root-initial plosives were never
word-initial in verbs, they follow the next set of sound laws.
Word-medial plosives display different behaviors; well-attested
cases include:
-bʰ- > -b-VpV- > -VfV-d- > -ð- near e, i; -d- near o, u
-dʰ- > -θ- near i; -d- elsewhere
-g- > -g-gʷʰ- > -g-g̑ - > -g-g̑ ʰ- > -k-kʷ- > -b8
based on areal similarities, this trajectory to eventual loss is more likely
than aspiration, contra JIES.
11
Historical Phonology
Final -s is lost after vowels:
-Vs > -V
Word-medial consonant clusters undergo several simplifications
and changes; a notable one is the following:
-st- > -s- in pre-tonic position, -st- in post-tonic position
Vowels are generally preserved, except:
er, ēr > ar in closed syllables
en > an
(-)el- > (-)al- (exception: ell > ill)
ei > e
Proto-Basque - the proto-language obtained by applying the above
sound laws - is still recognizably Indo-European. Its evolution into
Pre-Basque, on the other hand, involves dramatic sound changes
that will obscure its origins.
12
Historical Phonology
Main sound laws linking Proto-Basque to Pre-Basque
The main phenomenon is the loss of all fricatives (apparently
except medial -θ- which later evolves to /z/):
f>∅
θ- > ∅-
x- > ∅v- > ∅ð>∅
γ- > ∅-
This set of sound laws is probably the main reason why Basque is
so hard to recognize as an IE language: while the loss of wordmedial fricatives is a widespread phenomenon (e.g. in several
Romance languages, notably in French), the loss of word-initial
fricatives is much less frequent in IE languages – the most notable
exception being the loss of PIE *p- (via *f-) in Celtic.
Sibilants undergo
palatalization:
some
simplifications
and
tsu- > zu-(t)su(-) > -(t)zu(-) /-(t)zi(-)
s > s before e and after i, e; z elsewhere
ts > ts after i, e; tz elsewhere
w (whether primary, or secondary from uV) becomes g:
w>g
Word-medial θ becomes z:
-θ- > -z-
13
conditioned
Historical Phonology
Vowels undergo several further changes:
-V > -∅ in words with more than two syllables - and
sporadically in disyllabic words, too
Vu > V
a- > i- in pre-tonic position
e- > ∅- in pre-tonic position
Consonant clusters undergo several simplifications and changes;
notable ones include:
-Vktz- > -Vitz-rs- > -s- (see T 163)
-rst(-) > -rtz(-) / -st(-)
-rw- > -rr(-)
-ly- > -rr-lC- > -ll-
The above sound laws lead to a slight difference in the
reconstruction of Pre-Basque (vs. MICH and T): while primary PIE
*m is lost (via *v), secondary *m (from *mm, *nm) is preserved in
Pre-Basque.
Main sound laws linking Pre-Basque to Basque
For a detailed description, see T (chapter 3) and T-E (pages 25 to
38). The most notable sound changes from Pre-Basque to Basque
are the following:
loss of intervocalic *n: *VnV > VV
rhotacism of intervocalic *l: *VlV > VrV
fluctuation of intervocalic d and r ([ɾ])
*bVn > mVn
*bo- > o14
The Dictionary [EXCERPT]
The Dictionary [EXCERPT]
Structure of each entry
All dictionary entries have the same structure:
modern Basque term; dialect variants (when listed) are
followed by the acronym of the dialect (see acronym list);
English translation of the Basque term;
Pre-Basque reconstruction, when available (source: T and/or
T-E); in the rare cases where my sound laws lead to a PreBasque reconstruction different from Trask’s, Trask’s
reconstruction is presented first, followed by my own
reconstruction (preceded by “recte”);
Proto-Basque reconstruction;
Proto-Indo-European (“PIE”) reconstruction (preceded by a
question mark if the PIE etymology is doubtful);
Proto-Celtic reconstruction (if applicable);
Celtic cognates (if applicable);
other IE cognates;
optional comments about the etymology, incl. intermediate
forms between PIE and Pre-Basque (when this is useful to
make the phonetic evolution explicit);
sources of the Basque term, its Pre-Basque reconstruction,
PIE reconstruction and IE cognates, followed by a reference to
etymology number in JIES (see source acronyms in the
bibliography section).
As is usual in Basque linguistic work, the letter <h> is ignored in
the alphabetical ordering.
15
The Dictionary [EXCERPT]
Transcription conventions
All Greek words are transliterated.
For Hittite, the following conventions are used:
What is usually
written as follows by
Hittitologists …
… will be written
as follows is this
dictionary:
i̯
y
u̯
w
ḫ
h
š
s
For PIE, see “Introduction to sound laws” sub-section in the
“Historical Phonology” section.
A conjecture on perfective participles in –n
Contra Trask (T 212-214, T-E 46), I believe perfective participles
in -n are best explained as deriving from a circumfix *e-…-an
(possibly from an older *e-…-en: see izen ‘name’). I will adhere to
this view throughout the dictionary.
Intriguingly, this circumfix resembles a similar, widespread Germanic
circumfix for perfective participles, appearing e.g. as ga-…-an in
Gothic, as gi-…-an in Old Saxon and Old High German, as ge-…-en
in Modern German, and as ge-…-an in Old English (where ge- was
pronounced /je/, then became i- in Middle English, and eventually
disappeared in Modern English). Whether this is just a chance
resemblance or a result of early contacts with Germanic populations,
it is too early to tell.
16
A
haur, aur
'child'
PRE-BASQUE: *[h]aur 'child'
PROTO-BASQUE: *faurPIE: *peh2u-ro- / *ph2eu-ro- 'little, small'
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Latin puer 'child, boy' (< *ph2u-ero- ‘smaller’),
Latin parvus ‘small’, Greek paûros ‘small’, Faroese faur ‘few’,
English few
COMMENT: *peh2uro- > *pauro- > *faur- > aur
SOURCES: T-E 20, 118, 386, 391; M-A 211, 320; V 448, 496; B 1158; KR
132; IEW 842f; JIES #88
17
B
B
bizi
'alive, living; life'
PRE-BASQUE: *bizi 'alive, living'
PROTO-BASQUE: *biutsu
PIE: *gʷ(e)ih3- 'to live' > *gʷih3-etoPROTO-CELTIC: *biwo- 'alive'
CELTIC: Middle Welsh byw ‘living, alive; life’; Old Cornish biu ‘life’
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Greek bíotos ‘life’ (< *gʷih3-eto-); Avestan
jiyā-tu- ‘life’; Sanskrit jīvitá- ‘living’; Lithuanian gyvatà ‘life’; Old
Prussian giwato ‘life’, Gothic qius ‘alive’, English quick, Latin vīvus
‘alive’, Latin vīta ‘life’ (< *gʷiH-wo-t-), Oscan biítam ‘life’ (< *gʷiH-t-)
COMMENT: *gʷih3eto- > *gʷioto- > *gʷiutsu- > *biutsu > *biuzi > bizi.
SOURCES: T 129, 312; T-E 145, 385, 387, 392; M-A 188; M 67; B 216; V 685;
KR 320; DERK 563; IEW 467f; LIV 215f; JIES #17
buru
'head'
PRE-BASQUE: *buru 'head' (recte *bulu)
PROTO-BASQUE: *γebulu
PIE: *gʰebʰōl / *gʰebʰ-(e)l- / *gʰebʰ-l-o- 'head'
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Greek kephálē ‘head’, Tocharian A śpāl
‘head’, Gothic gibla ‘pinnacle’
COMMENT: *gʰebʰol >*gʰebʰul- > * ebul-u- > *ebulu > *bulu, followed
by regular rhotacism of intervocalic *-l- after Pre-Basque. Also see
berarri ‘ear’.
SOURCES: T 129, 173, 285; T-E 19, 148, 387, 392; M-A 174; AD 642; KR
173; B 682; JIES #120
18
E
E
egun
'day; today'
PRE-BASQUE: *egu(-n) 'day; sun'
PROTO-BASQUE: *ðewuPIE: *di-eu- > *dei-w-o- 'day, clear sky, heaven, sky-god'
PROTO-CELTIC: *dīy(w)o- 'day', *dēwo- ‘god’ (< PIE *deiwo-)
CELTIC: Old Irish dïe ‘day’, Old Welsh did ‘day’, Cornish dew ‘god’
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Latin dies ‘day’, Latin diu ‘by day’, Latin deus
‘god’ (< PIE *deiwo-), Armenian tiw ‘day’, Sanskrit diáuḥ ‘heaven,
sky god, day’, Greek Zeus ‘Zeus’
COMMENT: *deiwo- > *deiwu- > *ðeiwu- > *ðewu- > *ewu- > *egu-.
The original Pre-Basque word was *egu 'day', whence egu-n 'today'
with -n locative ending, later generalized to nominal status. Eki 'sun'
(< *egu-ki) and egu-zki 'sun' also derive from *egu.
SOURCES: T 175, 211, 310; T-E 19, 41, 165, 386, 392; M-A 301; M 96, 101;
V 167, 170, 172-173, 315; MART 616; B 498; IEW 184f.; JIES #110
19
G
G
gizon (c excl. Z), gixon (B G), gízun (Z LN)
'man, person'
PRE-BASQUE: *gizon 'man'
PROTO-BASQUE: *giθonV
PIE: *dʰg̑ ʰom-yo- / *dʰg̑ ʰm-on- 'human, earthling’
PROTO-CELTIC: *gdonyo- 'human, person'
CELTIC: Gaulish -xtonio /gdonio/, Old Breton don
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Latin homō ‘man, human being’, Gothic guma
‘man’
COMMENT: a similar metathesis (*dʰg̑ ʰ- > *gd-) can be seen in ProtoCeltic. In Pre-Proto-Basque, the process must have been *dʰg̑ ʰ- >
*g̑ ʰdʰ- (metathesis) > *g̑ dʰ- (loss of first aspiration) > *gdʰ- (loss of
palatalization) > *gidʰ- (anaptyxis in consonant cluster).
SOURCES: T 142, 173, 271; T-E 19, 37, 206, 387, 393; M-A 206; M 156; V
287; KR 195; IEW 414; JIES #40
20
I
I
ibai (B G HN L LN Z), hibai (L LN)
'river'
PRE-BASQUE: *ibai (recte *ibani) 'river'
PROTO-BASQUE: *abanPIE: *h2ep-h3on- / *h2ebʰ-n̥ - 'river'
PROTO-CELTIC: *abon- 'river'
CELTIC: Old Irish ab 'river', Middle Welsh afon 'river'
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Palaic hāpna 'river', Latin amnis 'river'
COMMENT: *h2ebʰn̥ - > *aben- > *aban- > *iban-; Pre-Basque should
be reconstructed as *ibani, with subsequent regular loss of
intervocalic *n. No need to derive ibai ‘river’ from ibar ‘valley’ (contra
T-E 217): given this compelling IE etymology for ibai, the opposite is
more likely to be true, i.e. ibar may be a derivative of ibai.
SOURCES: T 313; T-E 217, 388, 393; M-A 126; M 23-24; V 39; K 295; IEW 1;
JIES #48
itz (G HN L LN), hitz (L LN Z)
'word'
PRE-BASQUE: *[h]itz 'word, speech, language'
PROTO-BASQUE: *yektsu
PIE: *yek- 'to say, speak' + *-toPROTO-CELTIC: *yextV- 'speech, language'
CELTIC: Middle Welsh ieith 'language', Middle Breton yez 'language'
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Old High German jiht ‘utterance’, Umbrian
iuk- ‘word’
21
I
COMMENT: *yekto- > *yektsu- > *yeitz > itz (with *yVi- > i- as in ihi
‘reed, rush’) - or possibly straight from zero grade *ik-to- > *iktsu >
*iitzu > itz.
SOURCES: T 174, 178; T-E 233, 390, 393; M 435-436; V 308; KR 272; IEW
503f; LIV 311; JIES #55
izar
'star'
PRE-BASQUE: *izar 'star'
PROTO-BASQUE: *asar
PIE: *h2s-tḗr 'star'
PROTO-CELTIC: *sterā 'star'
CELTIC: Old Irish ser, Middle Welsh ser
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Greek astḗr 'star', Hittite haster(a)- ‘star’,
English star
COMMENT: *h2stḗr > *astér > *asér > *azár > izar.
SOURCES: T 174, 313; T-E 19, 235, 389, 393; M-A 129; M 355; B 156; K 326;
KR 478; IEW 1028; JIES #58
22
N
N
neska
'girl'
PRE-BASQUE: *neska 'girl'
PROTO-BASQUE: *γ(e)n-et-ska (diminutive)
PIE: *g̑ enh1- 'to bear, engender, generate' > *g̑ (e)nh1-(e)toPROTO-CELTIC: *genetā 'girl'
CELTIC: Gaulish gnata ‘girl’, Welsh geneth ‘girl’
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Oscan genetaí 'to the daughter', German
Kind ‘child’
SOURCES: T 141, 174, 175, 271; T-E 7, 19, 296, 387, 393; M 157; V 260; B
272-273; KR 288; IEW 373f; LIV 163; JIES #68
23
O
O
otz, hotz
'cold (n., adj.)'
PRE-BASQUE: *[h]otz 'cold'
PROTO-BASQUE: *ougtsu
PIE: *h3eug- 'cold' + *-to- / *-tuPROTO-CELTIC: *owg-ro- 'cold (adj.)', Proto-Celtic *owxtu- 'cold (n.)'
CELTIC: Old Irish ócht 'cold' (< PIE *h3oug-tu-)
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Latvian aũksts (< PIE *h3oug-s-to-), Armenian
oyc ‘cold’
COMMENT: *h3eug-to/u- > *ougtu- > *ougtsu > *ogtsu > *otzu > otz
(for sporadic loss of final vowel in disyllabic words, compare e.g. or
‘dog’, zur ‘wood’).
SOURCES: T 137, 174, 178; T-E 20, 47, 322, 386, 394; M-A 348; M 301, 304;
MART 569; IEW 783; JIES #74
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S
S
sehi (L LN), sei (G L), seĩ (old B), sein (unified Basque),
segi (Sout)
'boy, child'
PRE-BASQUE: *seni 'boy, child'
PROTO-BASQUE: *seunPIE: *suhx-nu- 'son' < PIE *seuhx- 'to beget'
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Old High German sun, English son, Old
Prussian souns, Sanskrit sūnú-, Russian syn 'son'
COMMENT: *suhx-nV- > *sūn- > *seun- > *sen- + -i adj. suffix. For *uhx
> *ū > *eu compare euli ‘fly’. Basque seme 'son' < Pre-Basque
*sen-be has the same origin. Also see suin ‘son-in-law’.
SOURCES: T 133, 140, 177, 188, 269; T-E 123, 338, 339, 385, 386, 394; M-A
211; DERK 483; KR 492; IEW 913f; LIV 538; JIES #75
seme
‘son’
see sehi ‘boy, child’
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Z
Z
zur (c excl. R), zũr (R), zul (B)
'wood'
PRE-BASQUE: *zur 'wood'
PROTO-BASQUE: *tsuru
PIE: *doru 'tree, wood'
PROTO-CELTIC: *daru- 'oak'
CELTIC: Old Irish daur, Middle Welsh dar ‘oak’, Old Breton dar 'oak'
OTHER IE LANGUAGES: Greek dóru ‘wood, tree’, Hittite tāru ‘wood’,
English tree
COMMENT: *doru > *duru > *tsuru > *zuru > zur, with loss of *-u as in
Celtic reflexes9.
SOURCES: T 144, 173, 178, 310; T-E 20, 381, 390, 395; M-A 156; M 91; B
349; K 849; KR 522; IEW 214f; JIES #86
9
for other examples of sporadic loss of final vowel in disyllabic words see
e.g. otz ‘cold’, or ‘dog’.
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