Re: Ligurian

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

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@> wrote:
> >
> > > [Tavi:] If this is a genuine Ligurian/NWB word, I'd link to the root *balt-
> > > found in Tuscan (Lucchese) paltenna 'puddle' (an Etruscan loanword)
> as
> > > well as Albanian baltë 'mud, swamp, clay soil' and Slavic
> > > *bólto- 'swamp'.
> >
> > Those are from a different root. Etr. *palt(h)na, implied by Lucch.
> <paltenna>, is probably based on Lig. *balta: borrowed into Etr., but
> none of these would interchange /l/ with /r/ in this position.
> >
> Why not?

Slavic and other reflexes of the 'swamp' word require original *-l-. In Corsica we find place-names like Altage`ne, Altiani, Monte Altu, Casalta, Cima Alta, Cima all'Altare, Puntu di e Saltelle, Punta Volta, Lo Volta'jo, and Volti which retain -lt-, so Bartasca (and the alternative form Rau de Bartasco) can hardly reflect earlier *-lt-. In fact, Corsican Albitreccia, Albitrone, Monte Albanu, and Balba show that the prelabial rhotacism which did affect Lucchese and nearby dialects did not reach Corsica; these place-names are in contrast with Lucch. <arbugello> 'white fig' from VL *albicellus, <arbale> 'sapwood' from VL *alba:le ~ Lat. <alburnum>, <arbuolo> 'winnowing fan' from Lat. <alveolus>, and <arbolare> 'to winnow' from VL *alveola:re. Likewise Genovese <arbua> from Lat. <albarus> 'white poplar', <arbu> 'whitewash' from Lat. <album>, <arbu'> 'innocence' from Lat. <albor> 'whiteness', and <arbanela> 'canning jar' from VL *alvea:rella; Piemontese <arbena> 'ptarmigan' from Gallo-Latin <albe:na>, <arp> 'Alpine meadow; Alpine chalet' from G-L <alpis>, and <arbi> 'grape-vat' from Lat. <alveus> 'trough'; also Gen. and Piem. <barma> 'cave' from pre-Roman *balma:.

Lucch. <paltenna> illustrates that this rhotacism did not occur pre-dentally. Lombardic <palta> and Piem. <pauta> 'swamp' apparently continue the simplex. I do not believe that the p- here is due to (re)borrowing from Etruscan. Instead, it very likely comes directly from Langobardic *palta, resulting from borrowing of local Gallo-Latin *balta after the High German shift had gone to completion. This G-L *balta could be of either Ligurian or Gaulish origin, since the root was apparently *bHelh{x}-. (Pace Derksen et al., the justification for deriving 'swamp' from 'white' is as clear as mud. I think the 'swamp' root, originally perhaps 'low, sunken', is distinct from the 'white' root, which was probably *bHelh2- on the basis of Greek words.)

DGK