Fwd: andera 'woman' Celtic ?

[roslyn frank]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

>From: Xavier Delamarre <xdelamarre at siol.net>
>Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 23:02:02 +0100

[XD]
>I confess that the celticity of _*andera_ 'woman' (found in French
>dialects) is extremely uncertain.Moreover there is another Gaulish
>_andero-_ in the inscription of Chamalihre : _brixtia anderon_ "by the
>magic of the  infernals" (anderon : genitive plur.), which is, for
>sure, IE and Celtic, making an exact phonetic equation with Latin _inferus_
>O.Ind. _adhara-_ < IE _*ndhero-_ "d'en-bas, d'en-dessous, infernal".

[RF]
I'm curious what your opinion is of Theo Vennemann's lengthy discussion
of this root, _*andera_ 'woman', in his recent article in the JIES
Monograph Series No. 28 (1998), especially pp. 12-17. The article is
called "Andromeda and the Apples of the Hesperides" (pp. 1-68). I have
my own opinions as I'm certain Larry and Miguel do, but I'd first like
to understand the reasons, if any, why the item cannot belong to a
common lexical heritage (pre-IE) that passed it onto IE and Euskera.

Also, in reference to the second item, has anyone thought of its
possible relationship to _andiron_ (Mod. Eng.) for which the AHD (171:
49) lists the following entry: "One of a pair of metal supports for
holding up logs in a fireplace. Also called 'firedog.' [Middle English
_aundiren_, variant of Old French _andier_, firedog, from Gaulish
_andero-_ (unattested), young bull (andirons were often decorated with
heads of animals at the top).]"

The origin of the expression "firedog" is quite obvious since in times
past, i.e., in the Middle Ages and beyond, in the Pyrenean region a
small dog was kept in a revolving squirrel-type cage at the side of the
hearth. The cage's construction was such that it forced the dog to walk
in order to keep its balance and that walking movement was transmitted
by means of a simple gear mechanism to the iron rod or spit that turned
the carcass of meat empaled on it above the fire. That way those who
tended the fire were, indeed, actually dogs. The gear mechanism slowly
rotated so that the piece of meat didn't burn and those in the house
didn't have to sit next to the fire all day turning the spit. The
practice was probably widespread throughout Europe, but I'm speaking of
drawings that I've seen with pictures from the Pyrenean region showing
this breed of dog. Evidently, there were small dogs especially bred to
fit into the cages and capable of tolerating the onerous nature of the
task. In fact, one writer mentioned that in the house where she stayed
when the dog would awake, it often tried to escape, before it was locked
up in its cage for the day's work.

However, in the Pyrenees it wasn't always a dog that ended up tending
the fires, particularly in the case of the fires for communal ovens used
to make bread. There the woman who was in charge was called the
_labandere_, a compound in Euskera derived from _labe_ with the
phonological reduction to _lab(e)_ or _laba_ in composition and, of
course, <andera>. It would translate as something like "oven-woman".
Could the French term cited above, namely, _andiere_, be nothing more
than _(labe)andere_. If one were to try to carry the comparison further,
it might be necessary to speak of some sort of palatalization of the /d/
which is not at all unusual in Euskera, and perhaps even more common in
northern dialects of the language. What do you think, Larry? Miguel?

In conclusion, I have no idea whether there is any connection between
any of the above and your earlier remarks on the Gaullish item _andero-_
which I gather from the AHD entry someone thought meant "young bull". I
do recall once reading that there was some Celtic form with the meaning
"young cow, heifer" or something like that which was listed as cognate
with the Euskeric work <andere>/<andre>. Larry, do you remember the
citation?

>But words like _izokin_ < _eso:ks_ "salmon", _mando_ < _mandu-_
>(Mandu-essedum, Mandu-bracius) "mule", and most probably, with unexplained
>loss of initial, _azkoin_ < _tasgo-_ "badger" (on which see the beautiful
>article by Joshua Katz in a recent issue of HS), show the early contacts
>between continental Celts and (proto-)Basques.

At present I'm working on a response for the list concerning a probably
eytmology of <azkoin> in Euskera. Would you be able to send me the full
reference to Katz's article (off the list) and/or a short summary of it.
If you have his email address that, also, would be much appreciated,
again off the list.

Agur t'erdi,
Roz Frank
Department of Spanish & Portuguese
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
e-mail: roz-frank at uiowa.edu
[currently on leave in Panama]

Contribution # 2
March 26, 1999