Basque <ibili>

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk (Larry Trask) wrote:

>	<gurpil> 'cartwheel', 'wheel'

>This is from <gurdi> 'cart' + *<bil>.  The phonology is absolutely regular:
>*<gurdi-bil> -->  *<gurd-bil> --> *<gurt-bil>  --> *<gurt-pil>  -> <gurpil>.

>	<opil> 'small round bread roll or pastry'

>This is from <ogi> 'bread', and again the phonology is perfect:
>*<ogi-bil>  --> *<og-bil>  -->  *<ot-bil>  -->  *<ot-pil>  --> <opil>.

Given Mitxelena's reconstruction of "fortis" consonants and your
interpretation of them as geminates, wouldn't it be preferrable
to derive:

gurdi + bil > gurdbil > gurbbil > gurpil
ogi   + bil > ogbil   > obbil   > opil    ?

Of course, -b(i) [?], -d(i), -g(i) compounded before initial
vowel give -t, which then becomes harder to explain.  Maybe an
initial vowel was formerly preceded by a glottal stop in Basque
(which isn't the case now), and we might suppose that the fortis
variant of /?/ became /t/:

begi + *?ile > beg?ile > be??ile > betile
ardi + *?ile > ard?ile > ar??ile > artile.

>	<ukabil> 'fist'

>This is from the archaic <uko> 'forearm', recorded in Oihenart in the 17th
>century, and again the phonology is perfect:

>	*<uko-bil> --> <ukabil>

(In old compounds -i and (usually) -u are dropped, while -a/-o/-e
become -a-).  I wonder about the motivation for that last change.
Could it have gone through a stage */@/ (schwa), which later
became Basque /a/?  So, in this case: uko [*uggo] + bil > uk at bil
> ukabil.

>Now, the common word <biribil> 'round' looks like a reduplication.  Certainly
>an original *<bilibil> would develop regularly to <biribil>, since /l/ > /r/
>between vowels is a regular change.

Although not necessarily between i..i, where it might have been
expected to remain as palatal /l^/.

>But this admittedly leaves that medial
>/i/ unaccounted for, and opinion is divided here.  Some posit an original
>*<bilbil>, with an interfix <i> for phonological or expressive reasons.
>Others favor a purely expressive formation, consisting of an arbitrary
>sequence plus *<bil>.

A third possibility would be that the item was originally *bili
(redup. *bili-bili), and the final vowel was lost.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl