Re: More water, poles, catch...

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
> > On Fri, 25 Jun 2004 11:47:58 +0000, tgpedersen
> > <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> >
> > >Does that mean you've changed your mind on pre-pre-Basque since
> 1998:
> > >
> > >http://makeashorterlink.com/?D1DD225A8
> > >
> > >:
> > >"2. *-p-, *-t-, *-k-, *-tz-, *-ts-, *-N-, *-L- derive from
> > >geminates/consonant clusters." (perhaps I should have written
> *patC-
> > >or *paCt-)? You provide no rule for them in auslaut.
> >
> > In the Auslaut, only -tz, -ts, -N, -L (as well as -R and -r)
> > occur, where they reflect the merger of -z/-tz, -s/-ts,
> > -n/-nn, -l/ll.
> >
> > Basque <hatz> may come from *(h)as(s) or *(h)ass(V). If you
> > want *pat-, the possibilities would be *pat-s(V) >
> > *(h)ass(V) > hatz, or *pat-Vs > *(h)ats > *(h)ass > hatz.
> >
> > Cf. pre-Celtic *artos "bear" > Bq. hartz.
> >
>
> http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/pd.html
>
> I suppose if one derived from a root with the alternate

initial, /b/,

> we'd get
> *bat-sV- >
> *bass(V)
>
> which might be loaned (from some other Vasconic language) into
> Western Romance as <bassV> "low (lying)"? The various troops in

Roman

> service must have felt the double meaning of <altus> "high"/"low"

was

> unpractical.
>

Come to think of it, a similar word does exist in Basque:
<baso> "woods", but once "wilderness" (supposedly "uncultivated
(uncultivable) land".

BTW What, if anything, does Dutch <paling> "eel" have to do with
poles?

Torsten