Re: [tied] Digest Number 401

From: Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
Message: 6932
Date: 2001-04-02

On Mon, 2 Apr 2001 20:33:26 +0200, "Piotr Gasiorowski"
<gpiotr@...> wrote:

>From: longgren@...
>> BADGER Proto-Nax *Xest 'otter' , Basque hartz 'bear' "azkonar (from *harz-konH-) 'badger'; for the second element of this latter form, see the Proto-Yeniseian word for WOLVERINE"
>
>The "badger" word in Basque (<azkoin> and other similar spellings < *(t)askone-) is more likely a loan from Celtic (*tasko-, cf. late Latin taxo:, -o:nis). The "bear" word <hartz>, which is strikingly (but most likely deceptively) similar to PIE *h2artk^o-,

Most likely a borrowing from Celtic *ártos "bear", with loss, in
Basque, of the final vowel (*ártos > *árts > hartz). Basque h- is not
etymological here, but derived from some suprasegmental feature (as
long as no reconstruction of Pre-Basque accentuation exists, the
details remain obscure). The loss of the vowel also has to do with
the Pre-Basque accent and is therefore equally unclear (that some
final vowels *were* lost in Basque is evident: <bat> "1" ~ <bederatzu>
"9" (bat < *bade), naiz "I am" ~ izan "to be" (naiz < *naa izan),
etc.


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