Plosive-liquid clusters in euskara borrowed from IE?

[Larry Trask]

On Wed, 21 Apr 1999, Jon Patrick wrote:

[on my claim that Pre-Basque did not permit plosive-liquid clusters]

[A plosive is any one of /p t k b d g/;
a liquid is any one of /l ll r rr/.]

> Further to Larry's assertion that the plosive-liquid cluster was not
> available in early euksara and have been elimenated I have found the
> following entries made by Azkue that he asserts are native words.

> Larry would you say that there is not one word in this list that is
> not problematic for your thesis, that is you can source every single
> one of these words from outside euskara. I would be certainly
> grateful for the source of each of them.

Let's start with a couple of clarifications.

First, I claim only that Pre-Basque did not permit such clusters.  In
fact, these clusters apparently remained impossible in Basque for quite
a few centuries after the Roman period, but eventually, under Romance
influence, they became acceptable in Basque.  Today they are moderately
frequent.

Second, there is a big difference between a word which is *native* and a
word which is *ancient*.  These two are independent.  For example:

<gizon> `man'		native and ancient
<emakume> `woman'	native but not ancient
<liburu> `book'		ancient but not native
<abioi>	`airplane'	neither native nor ancient

Now, the claim is that plosive-liquid clusters do not occur in words
which are ancient, whether or not the words are native.  Native and
ancient words never contained such clusters.  Foreign words containing
such clusters, when borrowed into early Basque, were re-shaped so as to
eliminate these clusters.

In comparatively modern times, Basque has accepted such clusters.  So,
Basque can borrow Spanish <globo> `globe' as <globo> with no problem.
Native words can acquire such clusters by phonological change, so that,
for example, <andere> `lady' has become <andre> or <andra> in many
varieties.  And, most importantly, *new* native words can be coined
within Basque which possess these clusters, such as the word <blai>,
which occurs in the expression <izerdi blai> `drenched in sweat'
(this word is nowhere recorded before the 1880s).

Third, Azkue does not claim that the words entered in his dictionary are
native.  On the contrary, he declares explicitly, in section IX of his
prologue, that he is entering words of foreign origin which are well
established in Basque -- and a very sensible policy this is, too.
It would have absurd to produce a dictionary of Basque which excluded
such everyday words as <liburu> `book', <lege> `law', <bago> `beech',
<diru> `money' and <eliza> `church', merely because these are of foreign
origin.

That said, I cannot possibly comment on every word in Jon's long list.
But I will pick a few words as examples.

> abrastasun

This is merely a secondary form of <aberastasun> `wealth', a derivative
of <abere> `domesticated animal', which itself is borrowed from Romance.

> brazilia

This is transparently borrowed from a Romance word related to French
<basilic> `basilica'.  The curious extra /r/ illustrates a sporadic but
moderately common phenomenon in Basque: note, for example, how Spanish
<holandes> `Dutch' appears in many varieties of Basque as <holandres>.

> brrrrra

This is not even a lexical item, but only a representation of a noise
used by shepherds to call their sheep.  It's on a par with English
noises like `brrr', `tsk-tsk' and `psst'.

> debru
> diabru

I hardly need to point out the Romance origin of this word for `devil'.

> ebri

This is merely a secondary form of common <euri> `rain', illustrating a
process similar to the one which turns <gaua> `the night' into <gaba> in
some varieties.

> lanbro

This word for `fog' is first recorded as <lanbo> in 1627, but from the
17th century it appears as <lanbro>.  Apparently the same process as in
<brazilia> above.

> glask

This is strictly an imitative word, on a par with <dzast!> for a
gunshot.

> grina

This word is a famous problem, but it is probably nothing more than a
borrowing from Bearnais.

> azukre

I don't think I need to say much about this word for `sugar', though its
form is somewhat unexpected.

> krak

Another imitative word.

> kresal

Another instance of /r/-insertion: compare the variant form <gesal>.

> klunklun

This word for `toad', more familiar to me as <klinklon> (not in Azkue),
is an expressive formation of reduplicated nature.

> ebli

Another secondary form, this time for common <euli> `fly'.

> kobla
> kopla

This word for `couplet' is of obvious Romance origin (Spanish <copla>).

> kontra

The Romance origin is plain.

> potro

A very interesting word, and one of a vast cluster of words in both
Basque and Romance with meanings centered on `small animal', `chubby',
`cute little thing' and `sex organ'.  This word is recorded from 1657 in
the sense of `foal', but only from 1905 in the sense of `testicle' --
though the domination of Basque writing by priests probably has
something to do with its late attestation.

> traska

Even Azkue describes this as "onomatpoeic".  But I note that, in
Roncalese, the word means `layabout, good-for-nothing'.  I love it!
It's bad enough being called <Larri> in Basque; if I had to go to Roncal
and introduce myself as <Larri Traska>, the locals would be falling
about laughing.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk