Azula Baserria

Azula Baserria is the name of a farmstead located in Elgeta, Gipuzkoa.

https://www.baserrisarea.com/es/ondare-historikoa/10022/303-azula-baserria

This name is of particular interest because its form shows it to be of pre-Roman origin. In fact, it is identical in form to the name of a place recorded by Ptolemy hundreds of miles to the south.

In modern Basque, Azula would normally be Aitzola “stone hut”: aitz “stone” + ola “hut”. However, Azula is comprised of the archaic forms of these words: Iberian ats “stone” + ula “hut” (fortis medial /l/). Azula must date from the period when those archaic forms preponderated in the dialects of Iberian that were spoken in what is now the Basque Country. Furthermore, the reduction of /ts/ to /s/ (the mere laminal sibilant) is indicative of the Romanisation to which Basque toponyms were subjected during the Roman period.

Basque (h)aitz “stone” exhibits the /ai/ diphthong in the majority of dialects, but not in Bizkaian, Souletin and Roncalese, where it is atx, atz and atz respectively (no initial /h/ in Souletin). This is the form attested in Iberian, and in other Vasconic languages.

ASYLA is a place recorded by Ptolemy in Hispania Baetica between ARSA and ASTIGIS. It is identical in form to Azula.

Azula is not just a very old baserri. Its foundation seems to have been prehistoric.

Addendum 15/01/2017

Azula is attested as a surname:

Javier Aizarna Azula (1922-1998), a Basque politician.

Tomas de Azula Urien (1830-1878), a Basque opera singer.