non-IE/Germanic/h

[Rick Mc Callister]

[snip]

	As Mao Ze Dong once said, "Don't match pearls with the God of the
Deep Blue Sea." So I'll correct the Basque spellings and meanings.

>> 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'.

	This word resembles Spanish falda "skirt, flank"--which
unaccountably begins with /fV/; which, as anyone who was studied
Ibero-Romance knows, is a no-no. Is there an Old Castilian, Gasco'n or
Aragone's form /*alda, *alde/ ?

>> 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.

This is my error and is what predictably happens when you try to read a
language you've never studied, German, with a cheapo dictionary. My
dictionary gave "urine & bladder". I made the wrong choice. My apologies to
Theo and everyone else.

Rick Mc Callister
W-1634
MUW
Columbus MS 39701
rmccalli at sunmuw1.muw.edu