Pre-Basque phonology (PS)

[Larry Trask]

On Fri, 17 Sep 1999, Jon Patrick wrote:

> ON Thu, 16 Sep 1999 09:21:05 +0100 (BST)
>   Larry Trask said in repsonse to Ros Frank

>     Indeed, and the identification of the Aquitanian item with <beltz> is by
>     no means certain, though it is plausible.  Anyway, we do have a modest
>     amount of further evidence favoring the reconstruction of <beltz> as
>     *<beletz> -- not least the observation that perhaps no other word in the
>     language ends in the cluster <-ltz>.

> My useful computer tells me there are  4 such words
> altz - alder tree
> beltz - black
> bultz - push, thrust
> giltz - key

Very useful, indeed -- it's nice to be able to interrogate a database on
things like this.

But <altz> is widely attested as <(h)altza>, and <giltz> is widely
attested as <giltza>.  We may therefore surmise that the forms with
final <-a> are original, and that the shorter forms derive from loss of
this final <-a>, a common phenomenon in Basque, arising from the fact
that final <-a> is the Basque article.  Speakers therefore often analyze
a word-final <-a> as the article and remove it.  For <giltza>, this
analysis is confirmed by the observation that <giltza-> is universally
the combining form: <giltzatu> `lock up', not *<gilztu>, and so on, even
in the varieties in which the noun is <giltz>.

As for <bultz>, this is not a native word.  It derives from Spanish
<pulsar> or a related form, and it too has the stem <bultza->, as in the
verb <bultzatu> `push'.  It appears that the widespread nominal form
<bultz> likewise derives from loss of the final <-a>.

Jon's data therefore confirm my belief that <beltz> is the only word in
the language ending in <-ltz>.  Thanks, Jon.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk