abarca/abarka/alpargata

[Max W Wheeler]

On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

> >> abarca "sandal" s. X < pre-rom. [c]
> >> rel. con vasco abarka; raíz de alpargata [sandal] [c]
> >> pre-Romance, Basque origin [abi, wje]

> >Words of somewhat similar form and sense are found in Ibero-Romance and
> >in Iberian Arabic.  There has long been a debate as to just how all
> >these words are related.  Spanish <alpargata> appears to show the Arabic
> >article, but the Arabic word itself might be borrowed either from
> >Romance or from Basque.

> The problem with <alpargata> is the /p/ which, of course, doesn't
> exist in Standard Arabic--but I don't whether Andalusian Arabic may have
> allowed it or not. There are words, though, with al-p- associated with
> Andalusian toponymy,etc.; e.g. the Alpujarras [sp?] and others that escape
> me now.

> Maybe someone else can help explain this

Coromines mentions, to explain Hispano-Arabic <parga>. possible
contamination with some (unidentified) oriental word [i.e. some
hand-waving by Coromines]. The plural <al-parga:t> is the source of Sp.
<alpargata>.

The cognates in Cat., Port, have the form <avarca>.

Max
___________________________________________________________________________
Max W. Wheeler <maxw at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1273 678975; fax: +44 (0)1273 671320
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