non-IE/Germanic/h

[Larry Trask]

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

> hakan-, ha:kon, ho:ka "hook, peg, crook"
> [< ?Vasconic;
> see Basque gako "key", kako "hook, peg, crook"]
> [acc. cw, < ? IE *keg- "hook, tooth"] [cw, tv97]
> hake "hook" [MLG] > harquebus [cw, tv97]
> haki "hook" [ON] > hake [cw, tv97]
> hakila- > hekel "hatchel, flax comb with hooklike teeth' [M Dutch] > heckle
> [cw, tv97]
> hakkiyan > haccian [OE] > to hack [cw, tv97]
> ho:c [OE] > hook; [cw, tv97]
> Haken "hook, peg, crook/ed" [cw, tv97]

Basque <gako> ~ <kako> `hook' (and other senses) is a puzzle.  A form
<gako> is, at best, very unusual for a native lexical item, and the
variant <kako> is impossible for a native word unless it results from
voicing assimilation in the plosives.  The word has been much discussed,
and it is strongly suspected of being a loan, but no known Romance form
provides a satisfactory source.

> haltha- "slope, slant, incline" > Halde "slope, hillside", heald [OE]
> "hillside"
> [< ?Vasconic;
> see Basque halde, alde, ualde < ?*kalde "face, side, flank"] [tv95, tv97]

The Basque word is <alte> in the eastern dialects but <alde> everywhere
else, as a result of the categorical voicing of plosives after /l/ in
all but the eastern dialects.  No such form as *<halde> is known to me.
Lhande's 1926 dictionary cites <halde> and attributes it solely to the
17th-century writer Oihenart, but Oihenart in fact used <alde>, and so I
suspect an error here.  (Lhande is full of errors.)

The form <ualde> is an error: this must be the compound with initial
<ur> `water', which appears as <uhalde> ~ <ugalde>, and means literally
`waterside'.

The central meaning of the Basque word is everywhere `side', with
transferred senses like `flank' and `region'.  I don't think it really
means `face', and it certainly doesn't mean `slope'.

> Harn "bladder"
> [< ?Vasconic";
> see Basque garnur "bladder" < *kernu] [tv95, tv97]

The Basque word for `urine' is <gernu>, with a typical western variant
<garnu>.  This word, with its almost unique /rn/ cluster, has been much
discussed, but its origin is unknown.  The alleged Basque *<garnur>
`bladder' is unknown to me and to the lexicographers, and I query its
existence.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk