Re: [tied] Re: *(H-)p/bh[-r/l-] again again

From: Miguel Carrasquer
Message: 29417
Date: 2004-01-12

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 10:36:49 +0000, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:

>--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Marco Moretti"
><marcomoretti69@...> wrote:
>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
>wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Much as I would love to leave my insane Austronesian( -> Proto-
>> > Bantu) -> AfroAsiatic/IE theory behind me, and in particular the
>> > unwieldy blob of *(H-)p/bh "water; on, at" together with *(H-)
>p/bh-
>> > r/l- "one side; across; transport" with its anchoring in
>societies
>> > living on both banks of a river, unfortunately facts seem to have
>> > entered a conspiracy against this laudable intention:
>> >
>> > Basque ibai "river", ibara "valley, estuary"
>> >
>> > (is there a -r suffix in Basque and, if yes, what does it mean?)
>> >
>> > from
>> > http://www.germanistik.uni-
>> > muenchen.de/theoretische_linguistik/vennemann.html
>>
>> It's impossible. In Basque there isn't a word ibara at all. Valley
>> is "ibar", and with determinative article "ibarra" (the article -a
><
>> *-har, the distal pronoun!).
>
>Well, I only know it from Vennemann's page. And <ibai>?
>
>
>> Etymology of these item is still uncertain to me, but clearly they
>> are unrelated with your *(H-)p/bh "water; on, at".
>
>I think that means that the word is not derivable within Basque. But
>I am glad to hear that something is clear to you.
>
>
>> Playing with Basque without a knowledge of Trask's and Michelena's
>> works is hopelessly idle.
>>
>Yes, yes. And the arguments?

The alternation ibarr ~ ibai occurs occasionally in Basque (e.g. bizkarr
"back, ridge" ~ bizkai (> Biscay); hamarr "10" ~ hamai- "-teen"). It's not
a regular sound correspondence, so it's hard to know what to make of it.

The suffix -arr is suspected to have been a collective. It is quite
frequent in Basque (bizkar "back", belar "grass", izar "star", bular
"breast", adar "horn", etc.). Since the alternation -arr ~ -ai only seems
to occur in instances of this collective suffix -arr, we may be dealing
with a morphological alternation -arr/-ai rather than something phonetical.


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