The oddities of Basque

[WeepingElf]

I shall add a note on the word family discussed here. At first glance, the first vowels of *h₁eḱwos and aqua seem to point at different initial laryngeals which would render the etymology invalid, but aqua may be a loanword from an IE language with an *o > a merger, as the language of the Old European Hydronymy appears to have been, so aqua would just be an o-grade formation, and there is no need to posit an initial *h₂ here.

[keenir]

This is like how healthy and whole are closely related etymologically.

Not so according to std etymologies.

Just so we stay on the same page here: are you saying that std etymologies are saying that healthy and whole are not closely related?

[Travis B.]

This is like how healthy and whole are closely related etymologically.

Not so according to std etymologies.

Just so we stay on the same page here: are you saying that std etymologies are saying that healthy and whole are not closely related?

Actually, there is a third word in that word family, hale, which is a dialect borrowing into Standard English from northern Middle English that forms a direct doublet with whole (which reflects the rounding of OE /aː/ to [ɔː] in southern Middle English; note that the <w> is just orthographic, introduced to distinguish it from hole in writing).

Edit: Oh, and I am forgetting health itself, a fourth word in that word family.

[WeepingElf]

Why does Talskubilos object to just about every etymology posted by someone else?

[keenir]

Why does Talskubilos object to just about every etymology posted by someone else?

maybe a tinge of "if you don't buy my theory, I reject yours!" perhaps?

[Talskubilos]

This is like how healthy and whole are closely related etymologically.

Not so according to std etymologies.

what do you mean?

Sorry, I was mistaken. The only difference is the -th suffix in health.

[Talskubilos]

I shall add a note on the word family discussed here. At first glance, the first vowels of *h₁eḱwos and aqua seem to point at different initial laryngeals which would render the etymology invalid, but aqua may be a loanword from an IE language with an *o > a merger, as the language of the Old European Hydronymy appears to have been, so aqua would just be an o-grade formation, and there is no need to posit an initial *h₂ here.

That's right, but I'm not sure OEH represents a single language. I also think the 'horse' word doesn't belong here.

[WeepingElf]

I shall add a note on the word family discussed here. At first glance, the first vowels of *h₁eḱwos and aqua seem to point at different initial laryngeals which would render the etymology invalid, but aqua may be a loanword from an IE language with an *o > a merger, as the language of the Old European Hydronymy appears to have been, so aqua would just be an o-grade formation, and there is no need to posit an initial *h₂ here.

That's right, but I'm not sure OEH represents a single language. I also think the 'horse' word doesn't belong here.

Of course, in such a large area, there'd at least be different dialects. And we have no proof that those names are all from the same stratum. Another possibility is what I call "name protraction": settlers name features of their new homeland after features of their old homeland, which may lead to names being carried beyond the range of the source language. One of my back burner projects is an atlas of the OEH, which may turn up regional differences we don't see yet.

[Richard W]

Actually, there is a third word in that word family, hale, which is a dialect borrowing into Standard English from northern Middle English that forms a direct doublet with whole (which reflects the rounding of OE /aː/ to [ɔː] in southern Middle English; note that the <w> is just orthographic, introduced to distinguish it from hole in writing).

Really? The spelling looks like a ghost of the dialect mixture that gave us words like one.

[Travis B.]

Actually, there is a third word in that word family, hale, which is a dialect borrowing into Standard English from northern Middle English that forms a direct doublet with whole (which reflects the rounding of OE /aː/ to [ɔː] in southern Middle English; note that the <w> is just orthographic, introduced to distinguish it from hole in writing).

Really? The spelling looks like a ghost of the dialect mixture that gave us words like one.

The original OE for ModE one was ān /aːn/ which became /ɔːn/ in southern ME, which irregularly gave rise to ModE /wʌn/ (possibly through dialect borrowing from a ME dialect where breaking of southern ME /ɔː/ was more regular), while the same OE became Scots ane /en/ through a regular change of OE /aː/ to Scots /e/. The relationship of whole and hale is the same here except that southern ME /ɔː/ regularly became ModE /oʊ/ instead in whole. Note that there never was a /ʍ/ or /w/ in whole; this is purely orthographic.

[Richard W]

The relationship of whole and hale is the same here except that southern ME /ɔː/ regularly became ModE /oʊ/ instead in whole. Note that there never was a /ʍ/ or /w/ in whole; this is purely orthographic.

That's not a universal opinion - the contrary was confidently asserted on Cybalist.

[Travis B.]

The relationship of whole and hale is the same here except that southern ME /ɔː/ regularly became ModE /oʊ/ instead in whole. Note that there never was a /ʍ/ or /w/ in whole; this is purely orthographic.

That's not a universal opinion - the contrary was confidently asserted on Cybalist.

Forgive my lack of familiarity with the details of traditional EngE dialects. This is an area that I have unfortunately seen little written about (I have read much more about traditional continental West Germanic varieties, in comparison).