Re: b/m alternation in Thacian, Illyria and Abanian

On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:00:40 -0000, "tgpedersen"
<tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>Tada!
>Aikio: 'An essay on substrate studies and the origins of Saami' has
>'loahkka' "torsk", ie "codfish" as a non-etymologizable substrate word
>(among many other anamal, including fish, names) of North Saami. My
>knowledge of Finnish-Saami historical linguistics is non-existent, but
>he does supply a similar substrate word in Saami 'gouvssat' "Lapland
>jay", in Finn. dial. 'kuusanka', whether hat is loaned directly from
>that substrate or from North Saami.
>
>Dansk Etymologisk Ordbog:
>lange "the codfish species Molva Vulgaris" [ ie. "ling"
>http://ca.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_762509212/ling.html ]
>ODa., No. id. Sw. långa, ON langa, side form Germ. Länge, Dui. leng,
>ling (whence Fr. lingue), Engl. ling, der. from 'lang' ["long"]
>
>Somehow I doubt that last piece of information.
>
>So: bakal-lank- "stick codfish" adopted into Proto-Basque at some time
>(or directly into West European languages?) from some Western
>substrate? Does Miguel have any Proto-Basque > Basque objections?

There are good arguments for deriving bacalao/cabillaud from
either Basque makila "stick" < Lat. bacilla, or from Romance
cap "head", or from cappellanus "chaplain" (cf. Sp. abadejo
"cod") [the latter two through Basque c.q. Gascon to explain
-ano > -ao]. The correct etymology is almost certainly one
of these three, the problem is that all three are more or
less equally plausible.

I can see no use for *-lank in this word.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
miguelc@...