Re: [tied] Re: euskara Irun "France", Donostia "Spain" - why?

On Thu, 5 Sep 2002 12:08:00 -0300, João Simões Lopes Filho <jodan99@...>
wrote:

>It was my mistake. I read in a report about ETA:
>" The highway that goes from Irun - France, in euskara - to San Sebastian -
>or, for nationalist basques, Donostia - it's jammed"
>
>I misunderstood the reference to San Sebastian, but I think the own reporter
>made a confusion writing France, instead of Pamplona.

Irun (Spa. Irún) is not Iruinea (Spa. Pamplona).

>IIRC: sevastiane > seuastiae > soastie > sosti > osti). Wow, the original
>name almost disappeared. This rule can be applied to another Christian
>names, like Esteban?

No. The loss of s- can only happen (and not always) if another -s- follows (the
only other example I know is Anso for Sanso/Sancho). The other developments
(unstressed eu > o, oa > o, ae > a; loss of intervocalic -n-) are normal.

A correction: the development was actually more like sevastiane > seuastiãe >
soastiã > sostia > ostia. The -a was reinterpreted as the definite article -a,
hence Donosti besides Donostia.


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...