Etymological Dictionary of Basque - Cryptm.org

36 R. L. Trask
P61. Raising of /e/ before /n/
Sporadically, /e/ is raised to /i/ before /n/. For example, earlier *(h)arena ‘sand’, from
Latin arena(m), became Z *harina, leading to modern Z hariña, and earlier *enor
‘anybody’ developed to *inor in many varieties, leading to modern iñor.
P62. Raising of /e/ before a palatal
Sporadically, /e/ is raised to /i/ before a following palatal consonant. For example,
common etxe ‘house’ is itxe in places, and common (h)ertsi ‘squeeze’ and eutzi ‘leave,
developing to *etxi in B, have become modern B itxi. Very rarely this raising occurs
before an ordinary sibilant, perhaps by mediation of a palatalized form, as in pisu ‘weight’,
from Cast. peso.
P63. Lowering of /e/ in trisyllables {(dissimilation)}
Sporadically, the vowel /e/ is lowered to /a/ in the second syllable of a trisyllable which
contains /i/ in the first and third syllables. For example, common igeri ‘swimming’ has a
variant igari. {Cf. P64}
P64. Bizkaian vowel harmony
In B, and also in a small area of HN, /a/ is raised to /e/ when the preceding syllable
contains a high vowel /i/ or /u/. This change mainly affects inflected forms, but
occasionally it shows up in a lexical item, as in iteun ‘confession’ for itaun. {Cf. P63.}
P65. Bizkaian /i/-backing {(backness dissimilation)}
In many cases, word-initial /i/ appears in B as /u/. This process appears to be confined to
disyllables in which the second vowel is /i/ or /e/. Examples: common ile ‘hair’, igel
‘frog’, (h)iri ‘town’, regional B ule, ugel, uri. The reason is unknown.
P66. Fronting of /u/ before labials {(labial dissimilation)}
Sporadically, /u/ is fronted to /i/ before a labial consonant. For example, common umore
‘humour’ is G imore, and common ubi ‘ford’ is ibi in places.
P67. Fronting of /u/ before a vowel
Sporadically, /u/ is fronted to /i/ before a vowel. For example, egubakoitz ‘Friday’,
‘Saturday’ becomes eguakoitz in some varieties, developing to egiakoitz. In Z and R, this
process is pervasive with word-final /u/, where it has apparently proceeded via P**{69}.
When the article -a or another vowel-initial suffix is added, the original sequence /-ua/
develops to Z /-üia/ > /-üa/ or /-ia, R /-uia/ > /-ia/. Reanalysis can then produce a free form
with final /-i/ for original /-u/.