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Evidence for Basque As an Indo-European Language

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Evidence for Basque As an Indo-European Language Evidence for Basque as an Indo-European Language Gianfranco Forni This article provides phonetic, lexical and grammatical evidence that Basque is an Indo-European language. It provides a brief history of previous research into the origins of Basque; a short description of the genesis of this article; a description of the methodology adopted for the present research; an overview of Michelena’s internal reconstruction of Pre-Basque; 23 sets of chronologically arranged sound laws linking Proto-Indo-European to Pre-Basque; Indo-European etymologies for 75% of the Basque native basic lexicon, with systematic cross-references to regular sound laws; Indo- European etymologies of some Basque bound morphemes, including case markers; a discussion of the findings; and Indo- European etymologies of 40 additional, non-basic lexical items. The current mainstream theory: Basque as a language isolate The current consensus among Vasconists and “orthodox” historical linguists is that Basque is a language isolate. Trask (T 358-429) provides an in-depth analysis of previous attempts at relating Basque to other language families, incl. North-Caucasian, and illustrates why such attempts variously failed, except for Aquitanian, which is considered, beyond doubt, to be related to Basque. In fact, the Basque lexicon looks quite un-Indo-European, as shown by the following subset of the basic lexicon: • personal pronouns: ni ‘I’, hi ‘thou’, gu ‘we’, zuek ‘you’, ber- ‘self’; • interrogative stems: no-, ze(r)-; • negation: ez ‘no, not’; • numerals: bat ‘1’, bi ‘2’, hiru(r) ‘3’, lau(r) ‘4’, bortz/bost ‘5’, sei ‘6’, zazpi ‘7’, zortzi ‘8’, bederatzi ‘9’, hamar ‘10’; • body parts: aho ‘mouth’, sudur ‘nose’, buztan Volume 41, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2013 2 Gianfranco Forni ‘tail’, beso ‘arm’, ezur ‘bone’, gibel ‘liver’, hortz ‘incisor tooth’, ile ‘hair’, larru ‘skin’, oin ‘foot, leg’, adar ‘horn’, buru ‘head’, odol ‘blood’, belaun ‘knee’; • adjectives: beltz ‘black’, bero ‘hot’, bizi ‘alive’, gaitz ‘bad’, garbi ‘clean’, mehe ‘thin’, otz ‘cold’, luze ‘long’, argal ‘thin’, handi ‘big’; • actions: ebaki ‘cut’, eran ‘drink’, egin ‘make’, eman ‘give’, entzun ‘hear’, erori ‘fall’, erran ‘say’, igan ‘go up’, ikusi ‘see’, itzuli ‘turn’, jan ‘eat’, joan ‘go’, barre ‘laugh’; • nature: euri ‘rain’, gar ‘flame’, ibai ‘river’, ilun ‘night’, itsaso ‘sea’, izar ‘star’, su ‘fire’, zur ‘wood’, orri ‘leaf’, ke ‘smoke’, hil- ‘moon’, egun ‘day’, zulo ‘hole’; • animals: txori ‘bird’, erle ‘bee’, zorri ‘louse’, inurri ‘ant’; • people: gizon ‘man’, neska ‘girl’, sehi ‘boy’, haur ‘child’, atso ‘old woman’, anaia ‘brother’. At first glance, the differences between Basque and IE appear to be so insurmountable that one can easily understand the traditional position that the two are genetically unrelated. Genesis of this article The seemingly insurmountable gap between Basque and PIE can be bridged by two intermediate stepping stones: 1. Rather than working solely from modern Basque one can employ Michelena’s Pre-Basque (masterfully summarized by Trask); it’s an internal reconstruction of the phonology of Basque around two thousand years before present (see next section for details); 2. Rather than working directly from PIE one can employ Proto-Celtic reconstructions and Celtic comparanda. Why Celtic? Simply because the Basque-speaking area is a distinct white spot in a large, compact area that used to be The Journal of Indo-European Studies Evidence for Basque as an Indo-European Language 3 dominated by Celtic languages.1 Why look as far away as the Caucasus or China for potential relatives of Basque? Let’s rather start from square one: the backyard of the Basque country, as it were, i.e. its neighboring Celtic languages. As you’ll see in the next section, Pre-Basque had several very interesting features: it had no */m/ phoneme at all, and it did have */p, t, k, d/, but these phonemes could not occur at the beginning of a word. As per Martinet’s hypothesis, a possible explanation might be that the ancestor of Pre-Basque had */m/ and */p-, t-, k-, d-/, but these were lost. So, another device for comparison involves leveraging Martinet’s hypothesis when comparing PIE and Celtic with Pre-Basque and Basque. This yields far more promising results (Table 1). Basque Pre- Proto- PIE Other IE Basque Celtic reflexes aho *a[h]o *ás- > Old *h1/4óh1(e)s- Khotanese ‘mouth’ Irish á áha- aitzin *antzin *antono- *h2ent-h3en- ‘in front ‘forehead’ of’ bi ‘2’ *bi *dwí *dw-ih1 Latin bis (fem.) ‘2’ (fem.) ‘2’ ‘twice’ bizi *bizi *biwo- *gwiHwo-to- Greek ‘alive’ biotos buztan *buztan *buzdo- *gwosdho- ‘tail’ ‘tail’ ‘piece of wood, sprig’ egin *-gin- *gn-iyo- *genh1- ‘to ‘do, ‘do’ > Old beget’ make’ Irish gen- 1See e.g. the map on page 310 of Indo-European Language and Culture by Benjamin W. Fortson IV (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) Volume 41, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2013 4 Gianfranco Forni ezur *enazur *enátro- *h1en-h1eh1- ‘bone’ ‘entrails, tor ‘internal bowels’ > organ’ Middle Irish inathar gaitz *gaitz *waxto- *weh2k-to- < ‘bad’ ‘bad’ > *weh2k- ‘to Middle be empty, Welsh lacking’ gwaeth, Modern Breton gwazh ‘worse’ h garbi *garbi *gléwi- *g leyh2- ‘to ‘clean’ ‘liquid, shine’ clear’ gizon *gizon *gdonyo- *dhghom-yo- ‘man’ ‘human, ‘human, person’ earthling’ ibai *ibani *abon- *h2ep-h3on- ‘river’ w w ikusi *i-kus-i *ad-k is-o- *h2ed-k eys- ‘see’ ‘see’ ‘perceive’ otz *[h]otz *owg-ro- *h3eug-st- Latv. ‘cold’ Old Irish aÜksts úacht < PIE *h3owg-tu- sehi *seni *suhx-nu- Gothic ‘boy, ‘son’ sunus, child’ Sanskrit súnú- The Journal of Indo-European Studies Evidence for Basque as an Indo-European Language 5 belaun *bellaun *kwenno- *gonu ‘knee’ glúnos ‘knee’ ‘kneecap’ > Middle Welsh pen-glin, Middle Breton penn-glin, Old Cornish penclin ‘knee’ Table 1. Although these examples appear pretty straightforward, they might be loans from Celtic into Basque. Yet, if we could accumulate similar comparisons for several dozen basic terms, borrowing would become less and less likely, and inheritance would be the most compelling explanation. Let’s now look at some slightly less obvious, but still intriguing comparisons (Tables 2-4): Basque Pre-Basque Proto-Celtic PIE barre ‘laugh’ *barre *swaryo- *swer-yo- ‘laugh’ ‘make a sound’ ber- ‘self’ *bede *swe-(de-) *swe- ‘self’ Table 2: *sw- > b- Basque Pre-Basque Proto-Celtic PIE izar ‘star’ *izar *sterá > Old *h2stér Irish, Middle Welsh ser txori ‘bird’ *zori *stor- ‘a kind of bird’ Table 3: *st- > z-: Volume 41, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2013 6 Gianfranco Forni Basque Pre-Basque Proto-Celtic PIE zulo ‘hole’ *zullo *tullo- *tuk-slo- < ‘pierced, *tewk- ‘to perforated’ beat, perforate’ zur ‘wood’ *zur *doru ‘tree, wood’ Table 4: *tu-, *do- > zu- The loss of */m/, */p-/, */k-/, */t-/ yields further comparisons (Table 5). Basque Pre- Proto- PIE Other IE Basque Celtic reflexes inurri *innaurri *hinna *morwi- ‘ant’ morwi ‘ant’ ‘the ant’ joan ‘go’ *e-on-an *mon-í- *menH- ‘to ‘go’ tread’ larru *larru *fletro- *pl-etro- < ‘skin’ ‘hide, *pel- ‘to leather’ > skin’ Middle Welsh lledr, Modern Breton ler lau ‘4’ *lau(r) *flámá *pÒh2meh2 ‘palm, ‘palm, hand’ > hand’ Old Welsh lau adar *adarr *kerh2sr ‘horn’ ‘horn’ hiru ‘3’ *[h]iru *treies Armenian ere-, eri- The Journal of Indo-European Studies Evidence for Basque as an Indo-European Language 7 hi ‘thou’ *[h]i *tú, *tu *te ‘thee’ ‘thou’ > Old Welsh, Middle Breton ti Table 5: loss of */m/, */p-/, */k-/, */t-/ Basque gradually starts looking less isolated and the rest of this article will extend this approach to provide IE etymologies for an overwhelming majority of the basic Basque lexicon. Methodology The present research uses reconstructed Pre-Basque and Martinet’s hypothesis as its starting point. Therefore, this article only contains sound laws connecting PIE to Pre- Basque, since sound laws connecting Pre-Basque to Basque are extensively described in MICH and T (ch. 3). Before testing Martinet’s hypothesis against remote language families, I decided to compare Pre-Basque with the geographically closest family, Indo-European. This comparison very quickly proved to be extremely productive. The present research strictly follows the standard comparative method, i.e. it is based on the principle that, in order to prove that language L belongs to family F, one must prove that the majority of native (=non-borrowed) basic lexicon and grammar of L can be derived from the lexicon and grammar of proto-F through regular sound changes. Phonology Pre-Basque: an Internal Reconstruction Based on dialect variations, other internal evidence, and phonological treatment of loans, Michelena and Trask (MICH, T) reconstructed so-called Pre-Basque, i.e. the phonology of Basque around two thousand years before present. Such work, combined with an analysis of known loans, led to the creation of a list of native Basque terms and the reconstruction of their Pre-Basque phonological shape. Volume 41, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2013 8 Gianfranco Forni Pre-Basque is an excellent starting point for any historical linguist investigating the affiliation of Basque to other language families, because it: • filters out any terms that have already been recognized as loans, and only reconstructs “native” Basque terms; • provides an accurate segmentation of Basque lexical items, based on internal evidence; • identifies the common sources of current dialectal variations; • provides a standardized inventory of phonemes and phonotactic rules; • is not based on any assumption about external affiliations of Basque. The phonemic inventory reconstructed for Pre-Basque is the following (T, ch. 3)(Table 6): Fortes (-p-) -t- -k- -tz-, -ts-, -nn-, -ll-, -rr-, -tz -ts -nn -ll -rr Lenes b-, (d-), g-, z-, s-, n-, l-, -l- -r- -b- -d- -g- -z- -s- -n- Vowels i e a o u Table 6: The phonemic inventory of Pre-Basque. Lenes never occurred word-finally. Fortes2 never occurred word-initially (and plosive fortes never occurred word-finally, either).
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