Re: Is Basque IE?

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

> Basque

mendi has *nothing* to do with IE *men- but with Celtic *bando-/*bendo- 'peak, top'. This is corroborated by the diminutive forms pentoka (L, LN) 'hill', pendoka (G, L) 'sloppy terrain', pendoitz (HN, LN) 'precipice', (Bazt, HN, L, LN) 'slope', mendoitz (LN) 'slope'.

'Sloping' terrain, not a 'sloppy' copy. The original sense of the /p/-anlaut forms was apparently 'steep slope', corresponding exactly to Corsican _pÃ©ntica_ 'id.'. Celts never settled in Corsica and this word has nothing to do with Celtic *bendo-, much less with _mendi_, apart from the obvious contamination _mendoitz_.

>

I'd call this way of argumenting "denial". I hasn't occurred to you that the Celtic word is itself of non-IE origin?

>Actually,

neither behe nor behi had a medial nasal, as otherwise we'll have nasal vowels in Roncalese and/or Zuberoan. Unlike assumed by Academic Vascologists, a velar stop *-k- can also be the source of Basque -h-, as a particular case of Martinet's Law.

>

Shame on me for neglecting to check Roncalo-Souletin for nasal vowels. We discussed Martinet's Law before, I copied the book chapter in which he expounded it, and I do not accept it.

>

Actually, the formulation of Martinet's Law is mine, although obviously inspired in his word.

> As

I told before, gizon is a straightforward loanword from Celtic (Gaulish) *gdonjo- 'man', so there's no place here for on 'good'.

>

Like Gianfranco, you ignore what your simplistic theory cannot explain, namely the combining form _giza-_.

>

You'll a hard time explaining where giza- comes from.

> As

Basque has diverse and often contradictory sound changes, we must assume there were several linguistic varieties which interacted in Paleo-Basque (something you implicty acknowledge above).

> So there MAY have been a variety which deleted *b before *o.
>
It was. Basque oilo 'hen' from Hispano-Romance pollo is a good example, althouigh not the only one.

>The -t- in sutondo is actually a junction between compound elements when the first ended in a vowel and the second one had no initial consonant.

Really? Where did it come from, the same never-never-land as Larry Trask's expressive formations?

Nope.

> Actually, 'bird' and 'luck' are *homonymous* word.
> Divination by birds makes an etymological identity highly plausible,
>

Any other examples? Homonymy is far more likely.

> and I was not the one who originated this idea.
>

Yes, I know, but there's no need to repeat the same mistakes again.