Pre-Basque phonology

Larry Trask larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk
Mon Sep 27 07:43:40 UTC 1999


On Sat, 25 Sep 1999, Max Dashu wrote:

> Along similar lines, what's your take on Mari: has this name been
> assimilated from Maria, or does it have older folk roots? The former
> has seemed likely to me, but then Andra Mari has a rather different
> character than the Virgin Mary.

The name `Mari', the name of a semi-divine woman who enforces her own
non-Christian moral code and who is associated with particular locations
(notably the mountain of Anboto), is a great puzzle.

The character gives every appearance of being non-Christian and even
pre-Christian, and she may represent some kind of continuation of the
ancient Basque pagan religion (the Basques did not accept Christianity
before the tenth century).  But the name is difficult, because its form
is not consistent with ancient status in the language.  In particular,
initial /m/ normally only occurs in native Basque words when this
derives from */b/ in the configuration */bVn/ -- which hardly seems
possible here.

Since we have no evidence at all, we can only speculate.  I personally
find it hard to avoid the suspicion that the name has some kind of
connection with the name of the Virgin: after all, <Mari> is the usual
Basque form of <Maria>.  Perhaps a coincidentally similar name has been
contaminated, or perhaps the Christian name was adopted as a pseudonym,
out of taboo or out of fear of the Church's wrath, or perhaps the name
derives from some other non-Basque language now lost.  Nobody knows.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk



More information about the Indo-european mailing list