ara/ndano

[Larry Trask]

On Sat, 20 Mar 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

[LT]

> >Basque <izokin(a)> `salmon' is widely suspected of being *ultimately* of
> >Celtic origin, but not *directly*: instead, a Celtic loan into Late
> >Latin is favored by most commentators as the direct source of the Basque
> >word.

> 	I seem to remember a Spanish dialect form esoqui/n [maybe
> Asturian] Wasn't the Latin form something like esox? The ending
> -i/n, of course, is diminutive in Spanish --with similar forms in
> just about all Romance languages.

Yes, and yes.  The Asturian form, <esguin> ~ <esguino> `young salmon',
is suspected of being a loan from Basque.  Tovar wanted to see the
Basque word as borrowed directly from Celtic, but Michelena takes that
ending as pointing rather to a Romance origin.

[LT]

> >A Celtic origin has also been suggested for <arrau> ~ <arraun> `oar',
> >pointing to earlier *<arranu>, possibly to be identified with the word
> >represented by Old Irish <ram(e)> `oar'.  Don't know if there's anything
> >much behind this, especially since the nasal appears to be wrong.

> 	Spanish for "oar" is "remo." So a form similar to Irish was
> floating around the area.

Possibly.

[LT]

> >Finally, <maite> `beloved' has been thought for a century to have been
> >borrowed from the Celtic word represented by Old Irish <maith> `good'.
> >The semantics requires some fancy footwork, but the Basque word has an
> >anomalous form for a native word, and is surely borrowed from somewhere.

> 	I've heard it said quite a few times that Maite is a
> "nickname" for "Mari/a Teresa." And indeed, I've Maites whose legal
> "Spanish name" was "Mari/a Teresa."

Yes, it is true that the female given name <Maite> is the conventional
Basque equivalent of the Spanish <Maria Teresa>.  However, the adjective
<maite> `beloved' has existed in the language for as long as we have
records.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk