non-IE/Germanic/h

[Rick Mc Callister]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

Would you like to explain what your point is?

	falda in Spanish is "skirt" or "flank" [of a mountain]. Skirt is
obviously the basic meaning

	As I pointed out, it can't be a native word in Spanish

	BUT I was asking whether the form /alda, alde, halda/  might exist
in Old Spanish, Aragonese or Gascon. As you know, like Spanish, Gascon also
changed initial /fVC/ > /hVC/. Aragonese sometimes does this; although
descriptions of Aragonese sound pretty lame. If such a form did indeed
exist, either of these COULD have provided a source for Basque "alde, alte".

Now, what's YOUR point?

>On Sun, 7 Mar 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

>> 	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/ ?

>Sp. falda is a Germanic borrowing into Romance (It., Oc., Cat., Ptg,
>falda). Coromines suggests from Frankish *falda `fold', cf OHG falt. ME
>fald, related to Goth falthan, OHG faldan, OE fealdan, ON falda `to
>fold'; related by Onions to PIE *pel/*pl- with a *-t- extension; cf. Gk
>dipaltos, diplasios `twofold', haploos `simple'; Lat plicare `to fold'.

>Perhaps if we want to advance this 'research programme' we should impose
>on ourselves a self-denying ordinance against etymologizing off the
>cuff.

>Max W. Wheeler <maxw at cogs.susx.ac.uk>