Re: Questions and Impressions of Basque

Chris Bates scripsit:

> 2)The language actually sounds quite nice, nicer than I imagined for
> some reason... although I have difficulty getting the distinction
> between s, z and x right. It does seem strange though that Basque has s,
> S and... I don't know what the X-SAMPA representation of <s> is, but
> lacks f. Did basque f --> h (many Spanish speaking people around the
> Basque country pronounce f as h in their spanish), or has basque never
> had an f?
Well, Larry Trask (who certainly ought to know) says that Basque
orthographic "f" represents a labio-dental voiceless fricative, so in
what sense does Basque lack f?  It's true that most, though not all AFAIK,
of the Basque words beginning with F in Wiktionary are borrowings.

As for the f > h story, in Ibero-Romance all inherited /f/ went to
/h/ and then zero (this was long after inherited /h/ went to zero)
except /fw/ which remained unchanged.  This change was only recognized
orthographically when /f/ reappeared as a result of borrowings from
Latin: e.g. _horma_ 'cobbler's last' was written _forma_ in Old Spanish,
and is descended from Latin FORMA; when it needed to be contrasted with
borrowed _forma_, the spelling _horma_ was adopted.

Trask also says that the "Castilian is essentially Latin as spoken by
Basques" theory doesn't hold up, though he doesn't give the details on
his Basque page at http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/larryt/basque.html .
I have read parts of his 1996 book in preprint, though not the whole
thing, and have no trouble recommending it.  The list of "Basque is
related to X" debunkings is particularly hilarious.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
If a soldier is asked why he kills people who have done him no harm, or a
terrorist why he kills innocent people with his bombs, they can always
reply that war has been declared, and there are no innocent people in an
enemy country in wartime.  The answer is psychotic, but it is the answer
that humanity has given to every act of aggression in history.  --Northrop Frye

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