Paleo-Balkanic *mendjo- 'foal' (updated)

Albanian mëz, mâz, Romanian mînz (a Dacian substrate loanword) 'foal' derive from a Paleo-Balkanic¹ protoform *mendjo-² related to Gaulish mandu-, borrowed in turn into Latin mannus³. Also related are Basque mando 'mule' (dialectally also 'sterile animal or woman'), presumably a Celtic loanword, as well as dialectal High German (Tirol) Manz, Menz 'sterile cow'⁴ and Italian manzo 'ox'⁵. 

Basque idi 'ox' can also be derived from *mendo, assuming the following changes (not necessarily in that order): 1) loss of m-, 2) end > id, 3) -o > -i⁶.

Probably also belong here Sanskrit mandurā 'stable for horses', mandira- 'dwelling, house' and Greek mándra 'pen, stable'. In my opinion, we're dealing with a Wanderwort *mand- of ultimate Altaic origin: Tungusic *manda-ksa 'Eurasian elk (Alces alces)', Mongolian *mandʒi 'male elk' and Turkic *botu 'young of camel'  (EDAL 1253).

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¹ Certainly not IE-native as thought by Mallory-Adams. See J.P. Mallory & D.Q. Adams (2006): The Oxford Introduction to PIE and the PIE World, p. 142.
² T. Gaitzsch (2010): Das Pferd bei den Indogermanen: Sprachliche, kulturelle und archäologische Aspekte, p. 263-264.
³ X. Delamarre (2008): Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, p. 214.
⁴ J. Pokorný (1958): Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, p. 729.
⁵ Possibly a Messapic loanword, cfr. Menzana, a divinity to whom horses were offered.
⁶ In sharp contrast with more recent loanwords, the native core of Basque underwent so many phonetic changes, up to the point of making it hardly recognizable.

The ancient Basque homeland (updated)

According to most specialists, the area located between the Garonne river and the Pyrenees, ancient Aquitaine and modern Gascony, is the homeland of the ancient Basques. There we find a high density of Gascon toponyms in -òs, which extends to Basque -oz(e), -otz(e) and Navarro-Aragonese -ués on the other side of the Pyrenees¹.

This toponymic element derives from Celtic *ouxsV- 'high' (Old Irish úais, Cornish a-ūch)², whose superlative *uxsV-(s)amo- 'the highest' can be found in Middle Welsh uchaf, and the femenine *uxsV-(s)amā in Gaulish Uxisama (modern Oisème), Uxama³ and Celtiberian Usama (modern Osma). On the other hand, the former proposal of the Spanish linguist Ramón Menéndez Pidal, who linked the toponymic element to Basque otz 'cold' (itself from Celtic *ouxtu-⁴), can be dismissed.

The same lexeme would also be part of the Aquitanian anthroponym element Andos(s)-, Andox- (Latinized as Andossus, Andoxus) 'lord'⁵, whose first member would be the Gaulish intensive prefix and- 'very'. In my opinion, this evidence, together with loanwords such as gizon 'man' < Gaulish gdonio-, would indicate a Celtic substrate in Paleo-Basque whose existence hasn't been yet discovered by academic Vascologists.

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¹ G. Rohlfs (1970): Le Gascon. Études de phylologie pyrénénne. p. 29-33.

² R. Matasović (2009): Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, p. 303.
³ X. Delamarre (2008): Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, p. 329.
⁴ R. Matasović, op. cit., p. 304.
⁵ Replaced in modern Basque by jaun < *e-aun, presumably a fossilized participle 'elevated'. 

Man and dog (updated)

Uralic *koje 'man, person' is a remnant of a Borean word which spread as a Wanderwort into East Caucasian *χχHweje (NCED 26) and Tibeto-Burman *qhʷi:j 'dog'¹. The suffixed variant  *koj(e)-ra  > Uralic *kojra 'male (dog, man)' would correspond to East Caucasian *χχHwej-rV 'dog' (oblique stem) and Kartvelian (Svan) xwir- 'male (dog)'. 

On the other hand, Sinitic *khʷi:-n 'dog' borrowed into IE *k´(u)wo:n (a cultural loanword whose direction has been often reversed by Indo-Europeanists²) would be derived from the same lexem with a different suffix. 

Unfortunately, most macro-comparativists are unable to differentiate between borrowed and inherited lexicon³, as they blindly apply the comparative method coined in the 19th by Neogrammarians, which assumes common inheritance from a single source, represented by the genealogical tree model. By applying it to some hundreds of words, this process ultimately leads to the reconstruction of non-existent macro-families whose chronology is shallower (typically 2-3 times) than the actual ones. 
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¹ For which Starostin reconstructed a Sino-Caucasian etymology.
² T.V. Gamkrelidze & V.V. Ivanov (1995): Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans, p. 507. 

³ Generally, the lesser the semantic latitude, the likelier we're dealing with a Wanderwort, as it's often the case with names of domesticated animals.

Spanish jara 'rock rose; low bushes' (updated)

Spanish jara (old xara) 'rock rose (Cistus); low bushes' designates several species of perennial shrubs common in the Mediterranean area, especially Cistus ladanifer, which in other Hispano-Romance languages and Moroccan Arabic are designated with derivatives of Hispanic Latin stip(p)a.

The Spanish word has correspondences in Portuguese (en)xara 'low bushes' and Galician xara, Basque xara, txara, zara 'rock rose', and it's a borrowing from Hispano-Arabic ʃáʕra (Classical ʃaʕrāʔ) 'thicket, wood'¹. The Arabic word is in turn related to ʃaʕār- 'thick and interlaced trees which give shadow in summer and shelter in winter; vegetation', ʃaʕīr 'barley' < Semitic *ɬaʕVr- 'barley; grass, straw' (ND 2219), contaminated with ʃaʕr- 'hair' < Semitic *ɬaʕr- 'hair' (ND 2220).

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¹ F. Corriente (2003): Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, p. 307-308.

New Vasco-romance blog

Dear readers,

I've created a new Vasco-romance blog for a smoother communication with my potential readers about Romance etymologies (including borrowings into Basque). To achieve this goal, I'm going to write in Spanish, although occasionally I'd employ Catalan. 

This way, I'm going to migrate some of my older posts (translating them into Spanish, if necessary) to the new blog, while I'd keep in vasco-caucasian (in English) those topics which I consider to be of interest to a wider audience. I'm sorry for the inconveniencies this might cause.

Regards,

Octavià  

Basque otso 'wolf' (updated)

Basque otso 'wolf' apparently derives from Aquitanian OSSON, OXSON¹, where XS probably reflects an apico-alveolar affricate like the one found in modern Basque. There're also the Iberian onomastic element ośon and the "Tartessian" toponym Osson-oba 'River of wolves', whose second member is probably an Italoid toponymic element (e.g. On-oba) cognate to Lithuanian upė².

My colleague Miguel Carrasquer links this word to Berber *wVʃʃVn 'jackal', in turn linked to Egyptian wnʃ 'wolf' by Militarev. I regard this and other substrate loanwords as remnants of a Paleo-Berber language once spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. This would possibly be reflected in the distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroup E-M81, native to NW Africa but found also in some areas of the Iberian Peninsula (especially on the west), with a strong peak among Pasiegos of Cantabria, an ethnical group of trashumant shepherds³.

Distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroup E-M81

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¹ J. Gorrotxategi (1984): Estudio sobre la onomástica indígena de Aquitania, p. 250-251.

² F. Villar (2000): Indoeuropeos y no indoeuropeos en la Hispania prerromana.
³ Attempts to explain this as a result of the Muslim conquest (8th century AD) can be dismissed.

Latin faber 'smith', fabrica 'workshop'

Latin faber 'smith' < *dab-r-o- (traditional *dhabh-) derives from an onomatopoeic root *tap- ~ *dab- mimicking the hitting of metal¹. In Romance languages, the Latin word has descendants in Italian fabbro, Occitan faure, Old French fevre². Possibly also Basque harotz 'smith' reflects Italic *fabros.

The derivative fabrica 'workshop, forge' (but also 'art, trade') is the source of Spanish fragua 'forge': *frábica (metathesis) > frauga (syncope and lenition) > fragua. The Latin word is also the source of Catalan farga and French forge, the latter exported as a Wanderwort to several languages, including English.

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¹ The IE etymology concoted by Pokorný, based on a resemblance to Armenian darbin, is a pile of rubbish.
² Hence orfèvre 'silversmith, goldsmith', a compound with or 'gold'.

Spanish urraca 'magpie'

The Catalan linguist Joan Coromines¹ derives Spanish urraca 'magpie (Pica pica)' from the female personal name Urraca², popular during the High Middle Ages in the Christian kingdoms of Northern Spain (Asturias/León, Castile, Navarre, Aragon). However, this hypothesis not only doesn't give us any insight about the etymology, but it also won't explain the initial consonant found in the dialectal variants burraca, furraca, hurraca /xuráka/, zurraca /θuráka/.

I'd link the Spanish word to Basque urra (B) 'expression to call hens and pidgeons; birds in general, especially hens and pidgeons' < *burra 'hen', with *bu > u³ like in Iberian. By contrast, Paleo-Basque, lacking of such a stop in its sound inventory, adopted it as /p/⁴, hence purra (G, HN, S, R, Z), furra (B, G, HN) 'expression to call hens', with the expressive variants tturra /cura/ (L, LN, Z), turra (L, LN). There's also Galician churra /tʃúra/ 'hen; expression to call hens'.

A diminutive form *burra-ka would be then the source of the forms burraca, urraca. In Spanish, the initial labial became a voiceless bilabial fricative *φ, variously reflected as /f/, /x/ or /θ/⁵. As in the case of most names of birds, the utlimate origin of this word would be onomatopoeic.

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¹ J. Coromines (1973, 2008): Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, p. 564.

² There's also the Galician variant Orraca.

³ Possibly through an intermediate stage *wu.
⁴ Cfr. Asturian utre 'vulture' ~ Gascon botre, butre > Basque putre (G), futre (HN).
⁵ Spanish *φ became aspirated as /h/ (except before /l, r, w/) at an early date, although the aspiration was later lost in most dialects. This is why the genuine form must have been hurraca.

Aragonese mardano, mardán 'ram' (updated)

Aragonese mardano, mardán 'ram'¹ is a pre-Latin word with cognates in Catalan mardà, marrà and Occitan marran, marre, marro, where it also means 'sturdy man'. The latter was borrowed into dialectal Basque marro (HN, L, LN) 'ram', barro (S, R) '1 year old ram'². Contrarily to some authors, in this word the original cluster -ɾδ- was assimilated to -ɾɾ- and not the other way around³. 

Basque has another word for 'ram' (also 'sheep' in northern dialects): ahari (L, LN), ãhãri (Z), aari (B, HN), adari (B), ari (B, G, S, R) < *anaɾi, from an earlier *a-maɾi with delabialization in Paleo-Basque. This protoform is cognate to Galician marón (diminutive marondo) 'male of animal (especially pig or bull)', regional Spanish marón⁴ and Gascon maro 'ram', a root found in Latin marītus 'male, husband' (likely an Etruscan loanword) and Hurrian mari(j)-annə 'chariot driver', which Starostin links to Caucasian *mo:rdɮV 'male'⁵.

In my opinion, this etymon could be also related to mardano and the like, although through a different substrate language.
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¹ Also bardano (Echo), with denasalization of m-. See A. Kuhn (1935, 2008): El dialecto altoaragonés. p. 107.
² There's also regional Navarrese Spanish borro '1-2 years old lamb'.
³ A. Kuhn, op. cit., p. 116.
⁴ There're also the Spanish forms marote (diminutive), marueco, morueco, murueco.
⁵ I. Diakonoff & S. Starostin (1986): Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language, §18.

Latin caesius 'light blue' (updated)

According to my amateur colleague Marco Moretti, Latin caesius 'light blue (also said of eye colour)' is a loanword from Etruscan caisie-, ceisi(e)-. These forms, together with caizna, ceizna, have exact counterparts in Baltic: Lithuanian gaĩsa-s 'glow, redness in the sky', Latvian gàiss 'air, wheather', gàišs 'bright, clear', gaisma 'light', etc.¹ In my opinion, these words are indicative of prehistoric contacts between Tyrrhenian (the language family to which Etruscan belongs) and a linguistic continuum from which emerged Baltic and Thracian². 

Also Lithuanian gaidrùs 'bright, clear (said of wheather)' and Greek phaidrós 'shining, bright, cheerful' belong here, and Duridanov reconstructs Thracian *gaidrus on the basis of the personal name Gaidre(a)s³. For these forms, an IE protoform *gh^wai- 'light, bright'⁴ can be reconstructed, with regular delabialization of the labiovelar in "satem" languages. In my opinion, this is a loanword from Caucasian *ʔVqq^wo-ji- 'white, light, blueish', in turn a derivative of *=eqqwA 'yellow'.

From the same Caucasian source it also comes a different IE protoform *koi-t^ʔ-, found in Lithuanian skaidrùs 'clear, bright', skáistas, skaistùs 'bright', Germanic *xaid-u- > Gothic haidus 'way, manner', *xaid-a- > Old Norse heiδ 'clear (said of weather)', heiδr 'clear, cheerful', *xaid-ra- > Old High German heitar, German heiter 'cheerful', and to which some IE-ists link the Latin word⁵.

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¹ As Etruscan didn't possess voiced stops, c /k/ would be the rendering of a former /g/.

² This continuum was broken by the irruption of people from the Pontic Steppes, whose languages interacted with the autochthonous ones and gave raise to Dacian (a close relative of Indo-Iranian) as well as Greek and its nearest relatives (Macedonian, Phrygian, Armenian).

³ I. Duridanov (1969): Die Trakisch- und Dakisch-Baltischen Sprachbeziehungen, p. 75.
⁴ See R.S.P Beekes (2010): Etymological Dictionary of Greek, p. 1544.
⁵ M. de Vaan (2008): Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, p. 82. 

Aragonese paniquesa 'weasel' (updated)

Aragonese paniquesa, Gascon panquèra, panquèsa 'weasel (Mustela nivalis)' is a diminutive form (with the Romance suffix -ella) which underwent a folk etymology from pan y queso 'bread and cheese'¹. This word shows the idiosyncratic treatment of -ll- in Pyrenaic², similar to the one of West Asturian, which has a voiceless retroflex africate [tʂ].
 

This is an Eurasiatic Wanderwort found in Eskimo-Aleut *paniɣ 'daughter', Altaic *p^hjun[e] ‘a small wild animal’ (Tungusic *pün´- 'jerboa, flying squirrel, mole; weasel; hedgehog', Mongolian *hünegen 'fox', Turkic *enük (~ *ünek) 'young of a wild animal, puppy'), which I'd link (through labialization of the initial labiovelar) to Caucasian *ɦnǝ:qq’wǝ: (~ *ɦqq’wǝ:nǝ:) 'mouse, rat', Yeniseian *ku:n´ (~ g-) 'wolverine', Balto-Slavic *keun- 'marten'. The metathesized variant is found in Uralic *ńukk- 'fox', Dravidian *nakk- 'fox, jackal'.

Possibly also related are Latin cunīculus (a Paleo-Hispanic loanword) and dialectal Basque untxi (HN, R), entxe (HN) 'rabbit', all them diminutive forms.

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¹ Hence the Basque calque ogigaztae (B) 'weasel', from ogi 'bread' and gaztae 'cheese'. For other names of 'weasel' in Basque, see here.

² An extinct Romance language spoken in the High Middle Ages and which gave loanwords to Aragonese and some Pyrenaic Gascon varieties, especially Bearnese.