Dialectal French
>isard = mountain goat, chamois
This is a Pyrenean word (Cat. isard, Gasc. izar(t), Arag.
sarrio), most likely connected with Basque izarr "star"
(also "white spot on the forehead", "centro por donde parte
el pelo").
Miguel
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I cannot see the point of a word meaning "star"
when we have words that mean "goat".
Un détour inutile.
Arnaud
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The word "chamois", Sp. gamuza, Lat. camo:x is given in
Pokorny as derived from an Alpine substrate word *kamo:sso-
(< PIE *k^am-ont-?). The Basque word for "goat" <ahuntz> (<
*anuns) appears to be an ancient borrowing from
Indo-European: *kamo(:)nts > *anuns > ahuntz, with regular
*k- > 0-, *-m- > -n-, as in native words.
Miguel
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This word too is interesting.
I suggest Touareg H_m "antilope"
as the ground-form
Basque is direct from Ham > *an-
Camoks is a latinized form of Hamoks.
Arnaud
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