the Wheel and Dating PIE

[roslyn frank]

At 07:10 AM 1/13/00 GMT, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:

[speaking of the non-finite form <ibili> in Basque]

> The infinitive is clearly *e- (verbal noun formant)
>+ *-bil- + *-i (adjectival suffix), the inflected forms (e.g.
>na-bil "I walk (around)") show nothing but the verbal root *bil
>(which also, and probably not by coincidence, happens to be a
>nominal root *bil "round").

I'd like to follow up a bit on Miguel's last comment above.

First let me state that I'm a bit confused about the nature of the Basque
evidence itself. But before turning to that question, let me add that the
relationship between the Basque root-stem <-bil> and the IE materials is
equally unclear to me at this stage.

So, speaking of the meaning "round" that is attributed of proposed nominal
root *<bil>, could someone explain to me the role of <-bil> in the compound
<borobil> (also <boronbil>) defined by Azkue as "sphere, something round"
(all citations are from Azkue unless otherwise indicated). Also, what is
the meaning of the first element and could that element be affecting our
interpretation of the prototype meaning of <-bil> (as well as *<bil>)?
Actually I'm not familiar with <bil-> appearing in isolation with the
meaning "round". For example, the most commonly cited compound is <biribil>
whose meaning is glossed/translated as "round". But isn't the meaning
"round" derived primarily from two expressions both being compounds? And,
yes, I do know that the meaning that is assigned to *<bil> is "round" and
that there are other compounds where <-bil> appears as a suffixing element.
Nonetheless, I believe a closer examination of the compounds will suggest a
slightly different interpretation.

In the case of <biribil> it seems to me that there is a question concerning
its composition. One analysis could derive it from a reduplication based on
<bir> which is a relatively high frequency prefixing element in Basque. Yet
my own intuitive analysis of the compound would identify the first element
with <bere> "his/her/its", one of two 3rd p. sg. genitive pronouns, that
has undergone vowel raising, not particularly unusual in Basque. Moreover,
<bere> is a common element in compounds

Also, when dealing with the Basque evidence one must consider the possible
relationship between the verbal root of <bildu> (<bil-du> "to gather up"
and the <-bil-> of <ibili>. The bare-stem or radical <bil->, as in
<bil-du>, is found in a large number of compounds, and if I'm not mistaken,
almost always with the notion of "gathering up, collecting", e.g.,
<bilgune> "joint, place of articulation; meeting place (from <bil-(g)une>
with <(g)une> "space, segment, opening, moment"); <bilera> "pilgrimage,
'romeria', outing with a going and coming; reunion; ritual or communal turn
for recollection of goods, i.e., usually involving following an agreed upon
itinerary through the village or countryside (and hence 'movement'): from
<bil-era> where <-era> is the allative ending ("towards") also commonly
used to form nominal compound constructions. The allative ending is <-ra>
after vowels and <-era> after consonants. Certainly *<berebildu>
(*<bere-bil-du>) could be interpreted as "to move/turn on oneself, to roll
(oneself) up, to gather oneself up, to move toward oneself, to contract".

I would note that we find the following in Azkue: <biribildu>
(<biribil-du>) "redondear; agenciar; enroscarse una culebra"; <biribilkatu>
(<biribil-ka-tu>)"envolver, apelotonar, ganar por astucia o deseza,
enredar; recoger el ganado." In addition there is the example of <biribil>
and its variant <beribil> which were coined to mean "automobil" and said to
be a compound translating quite literally the notion of "self-mover" (cf.
Llande's _Dictionaire...1926), at least that was how the word was explained
to me by Basque speakers many years back.

In addition, there are a number of bisyllabic and trisyllabic items that
appear to be compounds ending in a suffixing element in <-pil/-bil>,
<gurpil> (<gurdi-bil>) "wheel", <opil> "type of pastry; hinge",
<gorapil(a)> (*<gora-bil>?)"knot", whose meaning is not always entirely
clear. I'm quite certain that there a several other examples that simply
don't come to my mind right now, although Jon Patrick probably could pull
them up from his computerized list. The difficulties involved in retrieving
such items, compounds with a given suffix, is another reason that Azkue's
dictionary should be computerized in its entirety and without attempting to
modify the spelling of the entries in order to convert them all into Batua,
the written standard invented some thirty years ago.

And following up on LT's comment about the meaning of <ibili>, would "to go
about" be a better rendition of its meaning? Azkue translates it simply as
"andar". Furthermore, I would imagine that if LT once glossed the meaning
of  "ibili" as "to go around", he probably meant by that to say the verb
often was used to mean "to go around/about (doing X or Y)."

Additionally, with respect to *<berebil> giving rise to <biribil>, there is
a curious aspect of Basque that might be related to the meanings cited
above for compounds such as <biribildu> and <biribilkatu>. I refer to the
fact that there is a certain amount of evidence that in Basque the notion
of "to turn into, transform (oneself)" is connected to the concept of
"twisted" but not from the point of view of our highly negative IE image
schemata which sets out "straightness" as a standard/base reality. Rather
<bihurri> "twisted" carries strong connotations of  "resistance", of
"rolling up on itself/oneself" as a newly woven rope is prone to do,
twisting itself back into a series of loops, coiling itself up: when
pressure is applied it can be straightened out, but when the pressure/force
is removed it goes back to its "natural" shape, and curls itself back up."

In Spanish for instance I believe that <torcido> "twisted" implies that
force was applied to an object that was originally "straight" and that
produced its "twisted" appearance. In Basque the internal strength of being
is in <bihurri>, in the return to the rolled up or coiled up state in which
the being's innate energy is exercised and contained in the shape itself.
It would appear that in Basque the polarity of the gestalt is/was
fundamentally positive although certainly the resistance offered by the
rope, person or object to our will/desires can be problematic. Yet this
complex image schema that is at work here making it possible for <bihurtu>
to mean "to twist up, coil up, curl up" as well as "to transform" ("to take
back its original shape" almost as if an inner force, as was the case with
the coiled rope, sets in motion the change). Keeping this in mind, it could
be argued that the meanings of *<berebil> derive from or are in some
fashion related to this same gestalt.

Notice that in English we "bend someone to our will", implying that the
person's "resistance" is conceptualized or projected spatially as
"straightness" to which force is applied and in this way it will be
twisted/bend out of its original shape. The scene projected metaphorically
is one in which energy source comes from the outside and is then applied to
the object or person. Stated differently, there are two scenarios: 1) in
English when the object's resistance ("ego/individual will") is overcome,
the shape implied by the expression is "twisted" and when the external
force is removed, the object remains "bent" or "twisted" and 2) in Basque
while the external force iseing applied the object is offering resistance
to being "straightened out" by the will/force of the other and then once
the external force is removed the object is understood to immediately
spring back and recover its original shape.

In short, generally speaking in English, as I mentioned above,
"straightness" is viewed as the "given", the natural state, and "twisted"
is what results from the application of an * external * force.

And a final aside. In the case of <bihurri>, certainly today we find it
used with negative connotations, much as it is in Spanish, but at the same
time it often carries a strong notion of "mischieviousness". Indeed, I've
heard Basque parents who when discussing the problem of
"educating/civilizing" their children, refer to this as a problem of
"domesticating" their <bihurri> off-spring. Indeed, according to Azkue, the
abstraction <bihurtasun> refers to "caracter violento; indocil" which might
be rendered by the English term "wild(ness)" Again, I would emphasize that
in Basque the notion of "transformation" calls into play an image gestalt
or motion gestalt that doesn't appear to be present in Romance or English.
Actually <bihurtu> is used today also to mean "to translate"). In summary,
I don't know of any general studies of this problem in IE languages,
especially diachronic ones since it is clear that the Basque data has
conceptual overlays that can be traced to the image schemata found in the
surrounding IE languages and firmly embedded in the metaphoric legacy of
Christianity, etc.

And to conclude this perhaps already too lengthy discussion, I would
mention that in Mikel Morris's highly readable and well researched
Basque-English/English-Basque Dictionary (1998), we find that the English
word "coil" is translated by three terms containing the element <bil>: as
<bilkari>,  <borobil> and <kiribil>.

On egin,
Roz Frank