ara/ndano

[Xavier Delamarre]

Rick Mc Callister wrote :

>Basque <aran> `plum' resembles various words in both Romance and Celtic,
>but no direction of borrowing seems to be phonologically plausible.
>According to the standard etymological dictionaries, the Romance words
>require *<agranio>, while the Celtic ones require *<agrinja> -- neither
>of which looks like an obvious relative of Basque <aran>.

>Could aran be from an original form *agran-?
>btw: what are the other forms in Romance & Celtic?
>Maybe Dennis "Donncha" King might have some insights on the Celtic forms

1/ Romance :Provençal _agreno_, Catalan _aranyó_, Aragon. _arañon_ point
to an original Gaulish _*agranio(ne-)_

2/ Insular Celtic : O.Ir. _áirne_ 'wild plum' is from _*agrinia:_, W.
_eirin_ 'plums' < _*agri:no-_, _aeron_ 'fruits, berries' < _*agra:n(i)o-,
Bret. _irinenn_ 'prunelle' is _*agri:no-_, LEIA A-48, Meyer-Lübke n. 294.

3/ The root is possibly the one of Latin _agrestis_, Greek _agrios_ 'wild'
("sauvage, des champs, non cultivé")

4/ Further connections : Goth. _akran_ 'fruit', O.Icel. _akarn_ 'fruit of
trees in wild' etc. (<_*akranan <_*agro(no)-) and (possibly)the group of
Lithuan. _uoga_, O.Slav. _jagoda_ etc. 'berry' (<_*o:ga:_ < _*og-_, Lex
Winter), IEW 773, Lehmann GED 24.

5/ Basque _arhan_, _aran_ 'plum' is obviously from continental Celtic
*agran(io)-, exactly as _andere, azkoin, bezu, izokin, gereta, mando_ etc.
are from Gaul. _andera:, bessu, eso:ks, cle:ta:, mandu,_ .

X. Delamarre
Ljubljana