Basque 'sei'

[Rick Mc Callister]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

	There's Spanish trebejo "game piece, piece of a tool set, etc."
which is not commonly used --at least among Latin Americans. The meaning is
not quite there, but there may be a link somewhere but I don't have access
to Corominas/Coromines.

[snip]>
>
>It is hard not to see a connection between Basque <trebe> 'adroit, skilful,
>expert', and also 'cunning', and the more-or-less synonymous Latin <trebax>.
>But the Basque word can't possibly derive directly from <trebax>.

>First, Latin loans into Basque almost invariably enter in the accusative, not
>in the nominative, and the Latin accusative <trebacem> doesn't end in a
>sibilant.

>Second, Pre-Basque absolutely did not permit plosive-liquid clusters in any
>position, and such clusters were invariably eliminated in loans from Latin.
>The usual way of resolving a word-initial /tr-/ cluster was to break it up by
>inserting an echo of the following vowel.  Hence *<tre-> should have yielded a
>Basque *<dere->, or at best *<tere-> -- not attested.  Compare, for example,
>Basque <daraturu> (and variants) 'drill', from the Latin accusative
><taratrum>.

	IF [BIG IF, that is] I remember correctly, you said early Basque
/l/ > /r/, so maybe via Spanish taladro or some similar form?

>Actually, Basque <trebe> is a bit of a puzzle.  The Latin word, itself of
>Greek origin, was apparently uncommon, and it appears to have left few traces
>in Romance.  The unreliable Lhande notes a supposedly synonymous <treba> ~
><treva> in unspecified varieties of Romance, but the major Romance sources at
>my disposal recognize no such word.  Quite possibly the Basque word is
>borrowed from an obscure Romance continuation of the Latin word, but it can't
>be borrowed from Latin.

[snip]

Rick Mc Callister
W-1634
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS 39701