Doing historical linguistics (part 1)

[Larry Trask]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On Wed, 11 Nov 1998, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:
 
OK.  I'm going to try to catch up a little here.
 
> "H.M.Hubey" <hubeyh at montclair.edu> wrote:
 
> >Larry Trask wrote:
 
> >> <eme> `female' (which itself is borrowed from Occitan), plus <-kume>
 
> >And where is that borrowed from?
 
It is not borrowed at all, but native.  Basque <ume> means `child,
offspring'.  This is a native word, reconstructed as *<unbe>, and
apparently attested in the Aquitanian ancestor of Basque as both OMBE-
and VMME.  This word often occurs as the second element in compounds, in
which position it occurs as <-kume>, with an initial /k/.  Nobody knows
how this /k/ arises, but it is not unique to this morpheme.  Very
commonly, a vowel-initial Basque word acquires an initial /k/ or /t/
when it serves as the second element in a compound.  The origin of this
plosive is only partly understood, but in any case it is normal in
Basque, and the /k/ in <emakume> requires no additional explanation.
 
This <-kume> is frequent:
 
        <katu> `cat', <katakume> `kitten'
        <ardi> `sheep', <arkume> `lamb'
        <uso> `pigeon', <usakume> `baby pigeon'
 
And so on, for many examples.  The other phonological developments seen
here are all regular.
 
The word <emakume> `woman' is seemingly of rather recent origin in
Basque: it has only a single attestation before the 18th century, since
when it has become the usual word for `woman', except in the Salazarese
dialect, in which it means `girl', which we believe to have been its
original meaning, since the etymology is *<eme-kume> `female offspring'.
 
The earlier word for `woman' was <emazte>, which today has been
specialized to `wife', except in Salazrese, where it still means
`woman'.
 
It will surprise no one to learn that both <emazte> and <emakume> are
compounds built upon the word <eme> `female', whose regular combining
form is <ema-> (look at two of the examples above).  We suspect an
etymology *<eme-gazte> `young female'.  And, as Miguel C V has pointed
out, this <eme> is borrowed from Gascon <hemne>, itself from Latin
<femina>.  Basque contains many loans from Gascon.  The /mn/ cluster has
been intolerable in Basque at all periods, and, in loan words containing
it, it is always reduced to either /m/ or /n/.
 
> >em (to suck), am (cunt in Turkish), amma (mother), amcik (pussy),
> >emesal (female speech in Sumerian), emcek (breasts, udder), meme
> >(breast), emzirik, etc etc.
 
The Sumerian word is not relevant, and it has been effectively disposed
of by Miguel.  Turkish <amma> does not mean `mother'; it means `but'.
The Turkish word for `mother' is <ana> in Anatolian Turkish but <anne>
in standard Istanbul Turkish, this last apparently being an expressive
variant of <ana>.
 
Turkish <meme> `nipple' is not available for comparison.  One of the
best-known facts about Turkish is that native Turkish lexical items do
not begin with /m/ unless they are imitative words or nursery words.  In
all likelihood, we are looking at a nursery word here, and nursery words
cannot be cited as comparanda, because they are so often created
independently.
 
The stem <em-> `suck' is the source of the derivatives <emcik> `nipple',
<emzik> `nipple', and <emzirmek> `suckle'; these can only be counted as
one word.
 
Finally, <amcik> is merely a diminutive of <am> `vulva', containing the
usual Turkish diminutive suffix <-cik>.
 
Hence all we have here for Turkish is a verb-stem <em-> `suck' and a
noun <am> `vulva'.  And nothing whatever can be concluded from this.
It's every bit as impressive as English `ear' and `hear'.
 
 
Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK
 
larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk