`Sancho'

Larry Trask larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk
Mon Mar 15 16:49:51 UTC 1999


On Fri, 12 Mar 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

[LT]

> >Debatable.  The form <Sancho> is Spanish.

> 	Of course it is, BUT it's a Spanish name commonly associated in
> Spanish literature and culture with the Basques [despite Sancho Panza],
> along with In~igo [vs. Ignacio, with which it is correctly or incorrectly
> associated].

Yes, the personal name `Sancho' is associated above all with the
medieval Kingdom of Navarre, which was predominantly Basque-speaking at
the time.  The most famous bearers of the name were the Kings of
Navarre, who were certainly Basques.  In all likelihood, we are looking
at a Basque name, though not necessarily one of ultimately Basque
origin.  This name is totally opaque in Basque, and I am aware of no
plausible etymology for it.

It should be borne in mind that medieval Romance names which were taken
into Basque often developed very distinctive Basque forms.  For example,
it is hardly obvious that <Orti> is merely the Basque form of the
medieval Spanish given name <Fortu'n>, or that <Manex> is a vernacular
form of the name which appears in French as <Jean>.  And you might like
to puzzle over how it is that the traditional Basque form of `Jim' is
<Xanti> -- the etymology is straightforward if you know one or two
things about Spanish personal names.

> That's why I qualified it as "Spanish spoken by Basques". Elsewhere
> in Spanish, the proper name developed as Santo or, more often,
> Santos. In Latin America, I've only come across Sancho as a dog's
> name.

And I have never encountered anybody called <Sancho> in Spain --
I gather that the name is no longer conferred.  However, <Pantxo> or
<Pantxoa> is still a vernacular form of <Francois> in the French Basque
Country, though the southern Basques prefer <Patxi> as their equivalent
of <Francisco>.  The first French Basque woman I ever met was called
<Francoise> in French, <Pantxika> in Basque, and I've more recently come
across another French Basque with the same two names.

My little 1972 dictionary of French Basque reports that <Santso> is a
possible male name equivalent to French <Sanche>, but I have never
encountered anybody with either name.

By the way, is it certain that <Santo(s)> is a development of <Sancho>?

[LT]

> >The medieval Basque form of
> >the name is <Antso>, which must derive from *<Santso> by dissimilatory
> >loss of the first sibilant.  And I don't see why this form would develop
> >from a palatalized coronal (/ts/ notates an apical affricate).

> >There is no need to appeal to a Romance palatal to account for the
> >Basque /ai/.  For example, the word for `fast, quick, soon' was mostly
> ><laster> in the 16th century but is mostly <laister> today.

> 	Then what's the reason? Is it an analogy to words with /ay/
> --which underwent this change previously because of metathesis of
> palatal, etc. Is it part of a regional phenomenon? --as in
> Portuguese, in which stressed /a/ often > /ay/ among certain
> speakers, e.g. the proper name Bras, which is often /brayz, brayzh,
> braysh/

Nobody knows what the reason is.  All I can report is that /a/ in the
first syllable of a polysyllable sometimes develops into /ai/, in a
purely sporadic manner.  But I *think* this only ever happens before a
coronal consonant, which may be relevant.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk



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