abarca/abarka/alpargata

[Larry Trask]

On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

[on the proposed derivation of Basque <abarka> `sandal' from <abar>
`branch(es)']

> 	maybe from cord made from pliable bark of branches? would that
> work?

Quite possibly.  Even though I grew up in a very rural area, my
knowledge of rustic crafts is severely limited.

By the way, my sources tell me that a certain Zamacola, who is unknown
to me, once actually defined <abarka> as `a kind of shoe made of small
branches', but I have to wonder about the reliability of this isolated
and obscure source.  The 18th-century writer Astarloa also defined
<abarka> as `thing made of branches', but Astarloa was just about the
craziest etymologist in the solar system, and nothing he says can be
taken at face value.

[LT]

> >Words of somewhat similar form and sense are found in Ibero-Romance and
> >in Iberian Arabic.  There has long been a debate as to just how all
> >these words are related.  Spanish <alpargata> appears to show the Arabic
> >article, but the Arabic word itself might be borrowed either from
> >Romance or from Basque.

> 	The problem with <alpargata> is the /p/ which, of course,
> doesn't exist in Standard Arabic--but I don't whether Andalusian
> Arabic may have allowed it or not. There are words, though, with
> al-p- associated with Andalusian toponymy,etc.; e.g. the Alpujarras
> [sp?] and others that escape me now.

> 	Maybe someone else can help explain this

According to Agud and Tovar, the Arabic word in question is recorded
both as <barga> and as <parga>, with a dot over the <g> whose
significance is unknown to me.  I too am surprised by that second form,
but maybe /p/ was possible in the Arabic of Spain.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk