Basque 'sei'

[Larry Trask]

Stephane Goyette writes:

[LT]

>> Perhaps, but how old is the Gascon phonology?  As I've pointed out
>> elsewhere, place names appear to show Gascon /s/ corresponding to Basque
>> laminal <z>, not to apical <s>.

> I'm not sure I follow. In the case of these place names, one is dealing
> with Basque (or 'Aquitanian') names borrowed into Late Latin/Early
> Romance, which only had one sibilant: laminal and apical /s/ would both be
> borrowed as Latin/Romance /s/, whatever its exact point of articulation
> was.

Yes.  If the relevant toponyms are of Aquitanian origin, this follows.  Or,
at least it follows if Gascon only had a single sibilant at the time.  And
just such a conclusion has been drawn by a number of people from the
geographical distribution of the toponyms of relevant form, even though no
really plausible identification for the ending in question can be provided
from within Basque (I dismiss <hotz> 'cold' as implausible).

It would be very helpful, here and elsewhere, if some kind of firm date could
be placed upon the appearance of the apical /s/ in Ibero-Romance -- but I
have never seen a serious attempt at this.  Has anybody?

Since Latin /s/ almost invariably enters Basque as the laminal <z>, it seems
safe to conclude that the Latin sibilant was laminal, or at least usually
laminal.  In Basque, we can catch a glimmering of the replacement of the
Latin laminal by the Ibero-Romance apical.  For example, Latin <scribere>, or
some early Romance reflex of this, was borrowed as <izkiri(b)atu> 'write',
with the laminal sibilant accompanied by other phonological characteristics
of early borrowings.  This is still the form today in the east.  In the west
of the country, however, the usual word for 'write' is <eskribatu> ~
<eskribitu>, from Castilian <escribir>, with an apical sibilant and with
other phonological characteristics of late borrowings.

Sadly, we can't date any of this, since the Romanists have no dates to offer
us as a standard.   But I stress again that any attempt at seeing Basque
<sei> 'six' as a loan from Romance, quite apart from its other problems,
requires a "late" borrowing into Basque -- whatever that may mean in real
time.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk