Plosive-liquid clusters in euskara borrowed from IE?

Larry Trask larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk
Tue Apr 27 09:10:52 UTC 1999


On Mon, 26 Apr 1999, Inaki Agirre Perez wrote:

> A couple of objections to LT's points:

[LT]

> > 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

> Azkue remarked the words he thought native with a different typeset in
> his dictionary.

Not exactly.  He explains in section XXIV.5 of his prologue that he uses
a distinctive typeface (capital letters) for headwords which he regards
as "primitive" (that is, monomorphemic), such as <beso> `arm'.  He also
uses capitals for words which he regards as bimorphemic but for which he
believes he can identify only one of the two morphemes, such as <galdu>
`lose', for which <-du> is obvious but <gal-> is not, and <haizkora>
`ax', which he believes (wrongly, in my view) to be a derivative of
<haitz> `stone, crag'.

> > > 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'.

> > > glask

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

> I wonder how is it that a language which rejects clusters and plosive
> initial words is so kind to produce imitative or expresive words within
> these parameters. Not to say the 'm' problem. I would bet that less of
> 10% of imitative/nursery/expresive words commit the well-established
> phonotactics of Pre-Basque. Is this normal? Or Basque got its quite rich
> expresiveness just in modern times?

I wish I knew the answer to that last question.  Unfortunately, we lack
the data to say anything very substantial about the historical
development of expressive formations in Basque.  But it is essential, in
any case, to distinguish lexical items from noises.

In English, we have expressive formations which are lexical items --
that is, real words of the language.  Examples include things like
`glop', `teensy-weensy', `zap', `icky' and `pizzazz'.  But we also have
noises which are not real words of the language, like `tsk-tsk', `shhh',
`pssst', and `brrr'.

Basque is much the same.  Things like <dzast!> `bang!' are lexical
items, while things like the shepherds' call <brrra> are noises.

In all likelihood, Basque, like any other language, has had both
expressive lexical items and noises for as long as it has existed.
But it has surely had different ones at different times.

Now, it is perfectly possible for a language to have expressive lexical
items which violate the ordinary phonological structure of the language.
English doesn't do this much, but some other languages do quite a lot of
it.  It is *possible*, therefore, that ancient or medieval Basque
permitted expressive words with "illegal" forms, but we have no evidence
to support such a suggestion.

What we do know is that the patterns for constructing expressive words
have changed over the centuries, and that the patterns used have not
been everywhere the same.  For example, the Lapurdian dialect is very
fond of expressive words beginning with <pin-> or <pan->, and it has
quite a few of these, while the other dialects do not appear to use
words of this type at all.

On the other hand, almost all dialects have long been fond of coining
expressive adjectives beginning with <ma-> or <mo-> to denote physical
or moral defects.  Every dialect seems to have some of these things, but
different dialects have different ones.  Examples: <matzer> `deformed',
<mozkor> `drunk', `obese', <margul> `washed out, colorless', <makur>
`bent, curved', <motzor> `rough, crude', <motel> `feeble, insipid',
<manzin> `insubstantial, feather-headed', <malkor> `sterile, barren',
<mamor> `fragile', <malputz> `chubby, mushy', <maltzur> `tricky,
deceitful', and so on, and so on, all these examples coming from
different dialects.  So, the *pattern* is widespread, but the actual
*words* used are different in different places.

Another popular expressive device is /m/-reduplication, as in expressive
words like <zirimiri> `drizzle', <zurrumurru> `murmur, rumor, gossip',
<aiko-maiko> `pretext, excuse', and <zarramarra> `trash, rubbish'.
Most dialects seem to have some of these, but different dialects have
different ones.

It seems clear, then, that the Basques have felt free to coin these
things for a long time, and that some patterns of formation have been
popular throughout the language, while others have gained a foothold
only in particular regions.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk



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