Basque *<bil> 'round'

[Steven A. Gustafson]

Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen wrote:

> Maybe the geographical position of the donor language can be narrowed
> down, for a word of the same shape found its way into Northern Europe in
> the specialized meaning of 'car' (cf. "wheels"). I'm thinking of course of
> Dan.-Norw.-Swed. bil 'car', which must be very old given the assimilation
> of the nominative marker in Icelandic bi:ll (from *bi:l-R pointing to
> PGmc. *bi:l-az).

My understanding has ever been, that -bil- was short for -automobil-,
which may be an ancient Germanic root, but it would seem to present
certain phonological problems.  My guess would be that the Icelandic has
been assimilated to fit into a pre-existing declension.

--
Steven A. Gustafson, attorney at law
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