Etymological Dictionary of Basque - Cryptm.org

42 R. L. Trask
W15. Neutralization {of affricate−fricative contrast}
The ordinary neutralization processes of the language apply in word-formation. In
particular, only a fricative /z/ or /s/ can occur before a following consonant, and not an
affricate, while only an affricate /tz/ or /ts/ can occur in most varieties after another
consonant, and not a fricative. Moreover, only a voiceless plosive can follow a (voiceless)
sibilant. So, for example, hitz ‘word’ plus -dun ‘having’ yields hiztun ‘eloquent’, with
neutralization of the sibilant to the fricative and devoicing of the plosive after a sibilant.
Note that the orthography does not always represent this devoicing: for example, itsaso
‘sea’ plus gizon ‘man’ yields itsaskizon ‘sailor’, which is customarily written itsasgizon.
These predictable neutralizations are not expressly noted in the entries.
W16. Sibilant harmony
A Basque lexical item may contain only laminal sibilants (/z tz/) or only apical sibilants
(/s ts/). When, by word-formation or borrowing, both orders of sibilant arise in a single
word, the laminal assimilates to the apical. For example, zin ‘truth’ combines with -etsi
‘consider’ to yield archaic zinetsi, modern sinetsi ‘believe’, and Castilian francés ‘French’,
originally borrowed as frantzes, is today usually frantses. [SEE FHV 282, 284 fn]
W17. /a/-addition
A few monosyllabic nouns occasionally exhibit a mysterious final /a/ in their combining
forms. For example, ke ‘smoke’ shows a combining form kea- in keatu ‘smoke (meat)’
(-tu verb-forming suffix), and or ‘dog’ shows a combining form ora- in orakume ‘puppy’
(-kume ‘offspring’). The origin of this is unknown in general, though in a few cases there
is evidence that this extra /a/ continues an earlier vowel: for example, ke ‘smoke’ has a
sparsely recorded B variant kee, whose combining form would regularly be kea-.
W18. Plosive insertion
Not infrequently, when two vowels come together at a morpheme boundary in wordformation,
a plosive is inserted; this may be either /t/ or /k/. For example, su ‘fire’
combines with alde ‘side’ to yield sukalde ‘kitchen’ and with ondo ‘side’ to yield sutondo
‘fireside, hearth’. The origin of this is not known. The /t/ might result from generalization
of the result of W3. But all of this is doubtless bound up somehow with the phenomenon
discussed under M**{2}.. [SEE ALSO FHV 249, 250]
W19. Final-element reduction
In word-formation, a final element may undergo various irregular reductions. Most
obviously, /h/ cannot survive in a third or later syllable, and must drop. But other
intervocalic consonants may also drop, and the resulting vowel sequences may be reduced
in one way or another. Lastly, medial vowels may occasionally be lost. Such a reduced
form is occasionally generalized to the free form. Examples: gabe ‘without’ is often -ge
as a final element; bahe ‘sieve’ becomes -bae or -be; bide ‘road’ may become -bi; biga
‘two’, formerly postposed, becomes first bia and then bi as a free form; beltz ‘black’,
always postposed, appears to derive from earlier *beletz.