Pre-Basque phonology (PS)

[Larry Trask]

On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

> Superficially, at least, those four words look possibly IE

> altz -- aliso, etc.

Yes, the Basque word is widely suspected of having a common origin with
the IE word, but the details are utterly obscure.

> beltz -- ?related to root of blue, black, blank

No.  Basque *<bel> `dark', though not attested independently, occurs in
a sizeable number of formations, and must surely be present in <beltz>.

> bultz -- ?related to root of Spanish empujar, impulso

Actually, <pulsar>.

> giltz -- ?related to Latin clave

If so, the phonology is highly irregular.  Latino-Romance <clave>, if
borrowed early, should have yielded a Basque *<labe>, by the usual
rules.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk