Re: Scientist's etymology vs. scientific etymology

From: tgpedersen
Message: 59104
Date: 2008-06-07

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
>
> --- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> ...
>
>
> >
> > Here are the relevant lines on this phenomemnon in
> > Basque from Trask;
> > The History of Basque, pp. 129-130
> >
> > 'In native words, of course, the reinterpretation left only voiced
> > plosives in initial position. Hence we find plenty of ancient
> > native words throughout the country with forms like bizi 'alive',
>
> Could bizi be from Celtic or some W IE language?

It looks pretty obvious. Trask doesn't mention the possibility, but he
wouldn't, would he? It does alternate with the 'illegal' p- in anlaut
in the manner of other loans, eg.
piztu/biztu "ignite"
piztia "wild animal"


> > buru 'head', gogo 'soul' and gatz 'salt', but practically no
> > non-loan words with initial voiceless plosives except those of
> > more recent origin and mostly severely localized distribution
> > (initial d- is not found in native words, of course, except in
> > finite verb-forms, in which the prefix d- is common; see Chapter
> > 4).
>
> There is a Basque surname Deusto --where is that from?

There is a University of Deusto too, is all I get from
The History of Basque


> If bide < *pide, could it be related to English path?
> Yes, I know, the vowels are all wrong, but if it were
> from some W IE language???

Would you believe I've thought that too?
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/pd.html
a derivation from the "water" word
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Op.html
note the Basque word for "valley"; it has been suggested that words
with the -ar suffix are loans.
The History of Basque, p. 7:
'The Basque-speaking region is overwhelmingly mountainous: this is a
land of limestone mountains, separated by narrow V-shaped valleys,
with only the occasional broader valley.'
This means that roads run on the river's edge in the valley, which
makes it tempting to compare Basque bide/-pide "road" with the many
'Pictish' Pit- names etc, as Vennemann did.
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/pd.html

In general, I noted that a lot of strangely distributed words with a
labial in anlaut mean something connected to water, so I speculated
whether they were related to the non-IE *akWa-/apa- word in the same
manner as words of Schrijver's "bird name" language are related (with
and without a- prefix):
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/25888
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Opr.html
http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/my.html
etc


Torsten