Re: Questions and Impressions of Basque

--- Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
wrote:

 A member of the
> list questioned
> whether Basque did indeed lack f; I believe that the
> only f I've seen so
> far (and I've been reading the book a lot today) is
> in an obviously
> borrowed word for coffee. I know I was told by
> someone that basque
> lacked 'f', and it certainly doesn't seem to be
> present in any native
> words that I've seen. Does the Basque dialect you
> speak have f? Do you
> speak one of the French dialects, or one of the
> Spanish dialects?
My grammar suggests that when a word is borrowed in
Basque, it should be written "the way it is
pronounced", and gives the example of "fotografia". I
also found the words "fagore", or "fagoretan" (in
favour of), "faltan" (for want of), "frango" (a great
deal, many - and not, as I first thought, "chicken",
like in Portuguese); "fidatu" (to trust) "mafrundi"
(having caught a cold)... all borrowed, as it seems.


=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)

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