Basque butterflies again

[Rick Mc Callister]

[snip]

>Take the mainly Lapurdian forms <pinpirin(a)> ~ <pinpilinpauxa>.
>Lapurdian, almost alone among the varieties of Basque, is very fond of
>expressive formations in <pinp->, <panp-> and <punp->.  Here are some
>examples of such expressive forms:

	Not all of these seem expressive, some seem to be modified
loanwords from Romance with assimilated consonants; perhaps "expressive"
forms of loanwords
	I don't know the Gascon, Aragonese, Catalan or Occitan cognates to
the French and Spanish forms [nor do I have access to dictionaries of those
languages. But these may offer better matches

><panpa> 'rag doll', <panpina> ~ <panpa> 'doll'

	See French poupon, English pompon < French ?; see proposed
*bunn-/*munn- "lump, bump, hill, etc."

><punpula> ~ <punpulla> ~ <punpullo> '(a single) tear', 'dewdrop',
>'bubble', 'bulb'

	See Spanish bombilla, French ampule [sp?]

><panpalina> 'a kind of bell'; <punpa> 'large bell'

	See Spanish campana --with assimilation of /k/ > /p/

><punpun> 'poppy'

	See Spanish amapola

><panpa> 'thud', 'heartbeat'

	See Spanish palpitar [admittedly very weak]

[snip]

>A few further comments.  The word <bitxi> 'pretty', 'pretty little thing',
>'ornament', 'jewel', apparently present in the large group represented by
><bitxilota>, is of uncertain origin but is often suspected of being a
>palatalized form of <bizi> 'alive', 'living'.  The suggested semantic
>development is 'living' > 'moving' > 'flashing', 'sparkling', > 'pretty',
>'jewel', or something similar.

>So, as Ed suggests, <bizi> is very likely the *ultimate* source of the first
>element, but it cannot be the *direct* source.

	Is it possible that <bizi> < ? IE *wiwos "live" ?

[ Moderator's note:
  The IE etymon of Latin _vivo-_, Greek _bio-_, Sanskrit _jiva-_, clearly has
  an initial labiovelar; other bits of evidence lead us to reconstruct an "o-
  coloring" laryngeal in the root, so *g{^w}iH{_3}-.  Whether or not the Basque
  form can be derived thereform must be answered by someone else.
  --rma ]

Rick Mc Callister
W-1634
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS 39701