`Sancho'

[Larry Trask]

On Tue, 16 Mar 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

[LT]

> >By the way, is it certain that <Santo(s)> is a development of <Sancho>?

> 	Not quite, they are cognate, both are from /sanktu-/

> 	<sancho> shows up in Old Spanish for <santo> "holy, saint" and does
> conform to a greater degree to the usual treatment of Latin /-kt-/, which
> normally becomes /ch/ in Spanish words inherited from Latin --as opposed to
> Latinate loanwords e.g. leche < lacte-, hecho < factu-, dicho < dictu- ,
> etc.
> 	Taking this into acount, <santo> looks more like a loan word.
> 	But Antso < Santso, while it definitely looks cognate to <sancho>,
> <santo>, looks a bit askew given that Basque does have /ch/ yet we don't
> see *Santxo /sancho/. So it didn't come from <sancho>. And Old Spanish had
> /ts/ but we don't see *Sanzo /santso > sanso or Santho/.
> 	So, is Old Basque Santso from some other Romance language, i.e.
> Gascon or a dialect of Aragonese or directly from Latin?

I don't know.  But the first Romance variety I would look at is
Navarrese Romance, since this was the Romance variety used in Navarre by
non-Basque-speakers, and the second is Gascon, since Gascon, or at least
some variety of Occitan, was widely used in the early days of the
Kingdom of Navarre as the language of polite society.  (Basque was
*never* used in this function, even though it was the majority language
in the larger part of Navarre.)

Unfortunately, there exists no comprehensive and reliable reference work
on Basque personal names.  (Surnames, yes, but not given names.)
Observations about possible etymologies for given names are scattered
widely through the specialist literature.  Since I've read just about
all of this literature, I ought to know if a proposal exists, but I
can't recall one.  However, it may be that I've just forgotten it.

[LT]

> >It should be borne in mind that medieval Romance names which were taken
> >into Basque often developed very distinctive Basque forms.  For example,
> >it is hardly obvious that <Orti> is merely the Basque form of the
> >medieval Spanish given name <Fortu'n>, or that <Manex> is a vernacular
> >form of the name which appears in French as <Jean>.  And you might like
> >to puzzle over how it is that the traditional Basque form of `Jim' is
> ><Xanti> -- the etymology is straightforward if you know one or two
> >things about Spanish personal names.

> 	Sure, Xanti looks like Santiago but the others are straight from
> hell :>

Yes, it is Spanish <Santiago> `Saint James' which is the source of
Basque <Xanti>, with both the usual Basque clipping of long names and
the usual palatalization to create a diminutive.

Assuming that the orthographic <f> in Spanish <Fortu'n> genuinely
represents [f] and not [h], I would surmise, without checking, that we
might be looking at an original Romance *<Fortune>, which would
regularly yield Basque *<Bortune> --> *<Ortune> --> *<Ortue> -->
*<Ortui> --> <Orti>.

As for <Manex>, the direct source would be something similar to the
well-recorded Basque form <Joanes> `John', of transparent origin and
commonly pronounced as two syllables, roughly [jwanes].  Conversion of
an initial consonant to /m/ is another Basque process for forming
diminutives, and palatalization of the sibilant is, of course, normal.

[LT]

> >However, <Pantxo> or
> ><Pantxoa> is still a vernacular form of <Francois> in the French Basque
> >Country, though the southern Basques prefer <Patxi> as their equivalent
> >of <Francisco>.  The first French Basque woman I ever met was called
> ><Francoise> in French, <Pantxika> in Basque, and I've more recently come
> >across another French Basque with the same two names.

> 	So Pantxika is not just a Basque spelling of Spanish Panchica?

Oh, it very likely is, since that final <-ika> is not normal in Basque
in forming diminutives.  But, curiously, <Pantxika> is common only in
the French Basque Country.  I've never encountered anybody with this
name south of the Pyrenees.

> 	Then can we blame Pancho and Paco on the Basques?

Maybe, but I doubt it, especially for <Paco>, which does not at all
conform to the usual Basque patterns for forming diminutives.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk