On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, João wrote:
>Since you're a specialist in Basque, what are the words in Proto-Basque for
>GOD, SUN, MOON and SKY/HEAVEN.
"God" is <jainko>, <jaungoiko> (*e-aun goi-ko), literally "lord on
high".
"Sun" is <eguzki> or <ekhi>, both which contain the root *egu(n)-
"day".
"Moon" is (h)ilargi, a compound of *(h)il- (the original word for
moon, but homophonous with *(h)il- "to die"), and *argi- "bright".
"Sky, heaven" is usually <zeru> nowadays, a borrowing from Romance
*tselu (< caelum), but there's another word <osti> (< *ortzi) which
means "sky; storm", and may also have been a word for God, according
to one of the first reports we have on the Basque language: the 12th
century French pilgrim Aimery Picaud reported the Basque word for God
as "Urcia" (ortzi-a). But maybe he pointed to the sky, and simply got
the word for "the sky" in reply to his query.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...