Re: Stacking up on standard works

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <bm.brian@...> wrote:

>
> > PNC *=unddzE 'to hide, to steal, to conceal' (= stands for
> > a class-prefix)
> > Paleo-Basque *bints (u > i by delabialization)
> > Basque mintz (B, G, HN, S, R) 'membrane, film', (B) 'milk
> > cream', (HN) 'wheat grain with husk', mintzi (R)
> > 'membrane, film' Spanish binza, Aragonese binza, bienza
> > 'membrane, film; peritoneum'
>
> Trask's Etymological Dictionary of Basque, left incomplete
> at his death, makes Basque <mintz> 'membrane; hymen; skin' a
> borrowing from Romance, probably from Aragonese <binça>
> 'membrane'. That rather tends to cast doubt on a pre-Basque
> *bints.
>

Actually it's the Romance word which was borrowed from Paleo-Basque and not other way around. Trask was wrong about this.

> > PNC *bo:nddz(w)V 'a k. of vessel'
> > Paleo-Basque *bontsi
> > Basque ontzi 'ship', (B, G, HN, S, R) 'vessel', untzi
> > (Bazt, L, LN, Z) 'ship; vessel', (L, LN) 'stomach', unzi
> > (LN) 'ship'
>
> Pre-Basque */b/ in */bVn/ almost invariably became /m/; if
> <ontzi> 'container, vessel' is from *bontsi, why does it not
> appear in at least some dialects as **montzi?
>

Because the labial /b/ is regularly lost before /o/. You can find also this in Trask's.

> For that matter, why does it consistently have the wrong sibilant
> affricate?
>

In case you didn't know, Basque has no voiced fricatives. Basque <z, tz> respectively denote the lamino-alveolar fricative and affricate, which contrast with the apico-alveolar <s, ts>.