the Wheel and Dating PIE

[Larry Trask]

Rick Mc Callister writes:

>       It seems like someone had Spanish <andar> "to be in motion, engage
>  in activity, function/work (i.e. machines), go around, walk, travel, etc."
>  in mind as the translation for Basque <ibili> and then tried to come up
>  with an English equivalent.[Note that andar does have somewhat different
>  semantics in different regions of the Spanish speaking world.]

Yes.  Spanish <andar> is the usual dictionary gloss of Basque <ibili>, and it
certainly matches better than anything in English.  The usual French gloss is
<marcher>, which is also better than anything in English.

>       And from what Larry Trask says, I wonder if either andar or ibili
>  may be semantically influenced by the other form.

Quite possibly.  Especially (though not only) among Spanish Basques, <ibili>
shares some of the idiomatic meanings of <andar>, such as 'fare', 'get along'
and 'work', 'function'.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk