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

--- 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!).
Etymology of these item is still uncertain to me, but clearly they
are unrelated with your *(H-)p/bh "water; on, at".
Playing with Basque without a knowledge of Trask's and Michelena's
works is hopelessly idle.

Regards

Marco