From: Tavi
Message: 70619
Date: 2012-12-23
>I reconstruct a Paleo-Basque protoform *pe-Forr, whose *F gave /h/ in leihor but /g/ in lehor, pegor due to velarization (a rather common change). I think this is the same lexeme (without prefix) found in Spanish horro/a 'sterile (said of a female domestic animal)', homonymous to a word 'free' of Arabic origin.
> > But the suffix -itate was also appended to non-Latin lexemes such as pegor (LN) 'sterile, poor' (cfr. leihor,
> > legor 'dry') in pegorritate (LN) 'extreme misery'. As this is extremely rare within Basque (I know
> > no other examples), I must conclude the source language must be Romance.
>
> Well, you've come up with some interesting whoppers in the past,
> so why not take a look at Spanish peor < Latin peior-, note Italian peggio
> and nonstandard peyor and see if you find some examples of "sharpfening"
> in early Ibero-Romance or in Ibero-Romance loans into Basque. You
> probably won't find anything but who knows.
>
> > I don't think pegor has anything to do with Romance, but as you said, who knows?
>