Non-IE roots in Germanic/b

[Larry Trask]

On Sun, 21 Feb 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

> If I've missed any citations, please advise me. I still need to see
> the the OED has to say about the English words. Our library doesn't
> own any German or other etymological dictionaries, so if anyone
> wants to help out, I'd apopreciate it.

Only one Basque comparandum here.

> birch, Birke
> [< ?Vasconic; see Basque burkhi, urki] [tv95]

A connection has often been suspected between Basque <burki> ~ <urki>
`birch' and the Germanic word, but nothing can be established.
Vasconists have been inclined to see the Basque word as borrowed from
IE, but there appears to be no plausible direct source: no single secure
case is known of a Germanic loan directly into Basque (as opposed to via
Romance).

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk