Basque zaliga “wild osier patch”

Azkue lists the following:

(Z) zaliga “wild osier patch”

Llande lists the following:

(Z) zaligar “field covered with osiers”

In a Roman Catholic periodical of 1902 the following appears:

zaligatze “osier patch” (sahats eta zaligatzeen gainetik “from above the willows and osier patches”)

Basque zaliga bears a rather obvious resemblance to Latin salix, salicis “willow”, which is the origin of French saule, Spanish sauce, Italian salice and Portuguese salgueiro. It would therefore not seem unreasonable to regard Basque zaliga as a borrowing either directly from Latin or from a neighbouring Romance language. An orthodox Vascologist, who is likely to know little or nothing of the prehistory of Basque, is going to find no reason whatsoever for doubting it. But a deeper inquiry suggests that there are quite cogent reasons for doubting it. These are as follows:

(1)

Basque zaliga only refers to “osier”, never “willow”. Latin salix, salicis, French saule, Spanish sauce, Italian salice and Portuguese salgueiro only mean “willow”, never “osier”. In Latin, “osier” is vimen, viminis, in French, osier, in Spanish, mimbre, in Italian, vimine and in Portuguese, vime. Willow and osier are related trees, but different, and are treated differently in most languages, including Basque and the Romance languages that surround Basque.

(2)

Latin salix, salicis is feminine, but French saule, Spanish sauce, Italian salice and Portuguese salgueiro are all masculine. It seems unlikely, therefore, that Basque would acquire this word in a version that exhibited final /a/. The expected form would be *zalike, but it is zaliga, not *zalike.

(3)

Basque (Z) zaligar “field covered with wild osiers”, the form recorded by Llande but not Azkue, carries the fossilised collective suffix, -ar. The dendronymic suffix, -atze, as in Basque (Z) zaligatze “osier patch”, though pre-Roman in origin, has remained productive until recent times and is capable of being carried by loanwords. The -ar suffix, by contrast, is thoroughly fossilised and ceased to be productive long before contact with Romance. It cannot be carried by loanwords.

(4)

Basque zaliga appears to be present as the substantive component of a number of ancient toponyms. Consider the following:

Saligos (Hautes-Pyrenées) <*saliga-os

The -os toponymic suffix is always pre-Roman and is only ever attached to native Vasconic words. In this case, it is attached to an Iberian *saliga, which looks to be identical in every way to Basque zaliga.

Saugon (Gironde) <*saliga + Roman -onium

Saulges (Mayenne), which was recorded as Salicam in the 9^th century <*saliga

Saugues (Haute-Loire), which was recorded as Salga in the 12^th century <*saliga

(5)

Let us take a closer look at Latin salix, salicis. The following branches of Indo-European have similar words:

Celtic

Welsh helygen “willow”

Germanic

English sallow

Hellenic

Greek helike “willow” (many linguists claim that this word is of a different origin)

Illyrian

Albanian shelg “willow” (which may be from Latin)

Note that these are the westernmost branches of Indo-European. These are the branches that have been subject to the greatest influence by the Vasconic substrate. The word is missing from all the Asian Indo-European languages. The westernmost Indo-European languages have borrowed numerous Vasconic phytonyms and dendronyms. The set that includes Latin salix, salicis may well be one of them.

(6)

If Basque zaliga is native Vasconic, we would expect to find cognates in other non-Vasconic Dene-Caucasian languages. We probably do. Consider the following:

Yeniseian

Ket dʌĺɣit, dʌĺɣit, dʌĺɣit, dʌĺɣit “willow wood”

Yug dъ̄ĺ-git, dъĺgat “willow”

Note that all the variants listed include the second part of the stem with /g/, which we also see in Vasconic.

Yeniseian initial dentals sometimes do correspond with Vasconic initial /s/. Consider the following:

Kott ten “nipple”, Arin téŋul “milk”, Pumpokol den “milk” and Basque esne, ezne “milk”, zenberauen “cottage cheese” (literally “milk lead”)

Ket tatǝŋ, Yug tatɨŋ “straight” and Basque zuzen “straight”, Iberian sosin