Basque bardin, berdin “smooth, equal, equally”
Azkue lists the following:
(B, L, BN, Z, R-Uztarroz) bardin “equal, smooth”
(AN, G, L, BN, R) berdin “smooth, equal, equally”
Abstract meanings are problematic. They are very often extensions of non-abstract meanings and are difficult to trace at depth.
The first task is to identify the primary meaning. Is it “equal, equally” or “smooth”? If we accept the utility of a rebuttable evidentiary presumption that the non-abstract meaning is primary, then we need to treat “smooth” as the primary meaning in the absence of evidence to the contrary.
English provides us with an example of such a semantic extension, in the form of level, whose primary meaning is “flat, in the horizontal sense”. Reclaimed marshland may be known as a level, as in the Somerset Levels and Pevensey Levels. The 17th century Levellers grubbed up hedges, thereby making the ground flat. Cologne was levelled by Allied bombing. A spirit level is a device for ensuring that a surface is exactly horizontal. One of the secondary meanings is “equal”. Participants in a sporting competition can have level scores. The government talks about levelling up, meaning encouraging economic growth in depressed regions to make them equal to better off regions. A level can be a specific grade. Students sit ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels. The word may also be an intensifier, as in the phrase “doing one’s level best”. The word derives through French from Latin libella “a weighing balance”.
Basque bardin, berdin is likely to be a compound comprised of bar-, ber- plus the suffix, -din, meaning “like” or “in the manner of”. This is quite a rare suffix, but it is present in the following words (in addition to bardin, berdin):
gordin “raw” <*gorri-din “in the manner of red” (Iberian gori, kori, guri “red”)
istin “caulk” <*its-din “in the manner of dull or matt”*
urdin “blue or grey” <*ur-din “in the manner of water” (Iberian udin, udun, urdin)
If this analysis is correct, what is bar-, ber-?
Azkue lists the following:
(Z) baratxü “quiet”
(B, G, AN-Baztan) bare “calm, as of the sea”
(L, BN-Salazar, Araquistain) bare “phlegmatic”
A standing body of water that is calm is also smooth and equal.
So bardin, berdin may have an original meaning “in the manner of smooth, calm or quiet” which has been extended to “equal”.
What is the reason for the peculiar variation between first syllable /a/ and first syllable /e/, which cuts across all dialects except Bizkaian and Souletin? It is probably a rare example of ablaut in Basque. Another example of ablaut in Basque is hamar “ten” and hemezortzi “eighteen”.
There is the following lexical sequence inscribed in the Ionian Script on the Lead Foil of Alcoy: basbidir bartin. I do not consider bartin to be identical to bardin, berdin. bar-, which is written with the No 2 /r/ sign to denote lenis /r/, is likely to be identical to Basque bare. However, -tin is probably the Iberian agentive suffix, -tin, as in austin “miller”, tartin “potter”, tautin “purifier”. bartin may be an office holder, the “calm-maker” or adjudicator, or trustee of the basdidir “funerary society rules”.
Does Basque bardin, berdin have cognates in other Vasconic languages further afield? Probably.
Consider Greek parthenos “maiden, young woman”. This may be a substrate borrowing from a Pelasgian *par-then “smooth”. Many elite men in Ancient Greece had an unhealthy interest in prepubescent girls, some of whom were installed in their temples. A prepubescent girl is “smooth” in the sense of lacking pubic hair. Gay men use the word “smooth” to mean lacking body hair.
If this is correct, the compound was formed at the Proto-Vasconic stage, ie, in Western Anatolia before the melting of the ice.
There is also the possibility that the secondary meaning might be equally ancient. Consider Latin par, paris “equal, like, match, etc”, a probable substrate borrowing from Italian Vasconic. The suffix is missing from this word, suggesting perhaps that in some Vasconic languages the secondary meaning arose without the suffix.
Welsh gwar “civilised, tame, gentle” is a probable substrate loanword from British Vasconic.
In analysing these words in other Vasconic languages further afield, it is important to appreciate that Proto-Vasconic initial /b/ becomes /p/ in Pelasgian and Italian Vasconic and /w/ in British Vasconic.
*Basque istin “caulk” is presumed from the following two words mentioned by Larramendi: istinkari “caulk” and istinkatu “to caulk”. Iberian istin is present in the following anthroponyms recorded in the Ionian Script on the Lead Foil of Alcoy: Buistiner and Boistingis. Caulking is of extreme antiquity. Ezekiel mentions it in the Old Testament.