COMMENTS:This hypothetical morpheme *-cu / *-ci (it is disputed which is original) would mean 'ten', if *bede-ra-cu (*-ci) comes from 'ten less one' (10-1). There is a similar element in Bsq *sor(-)ci 'eight', but further analysis is unclear.
COMMENTS:There is a mysterious nasal vowel in RNC, but not in ZBR. In this, and a few other cases, it is apparent that some RNC nasal vowels are not necessarily related to lost nasal resonants.
COMMENTS:A compound beginning with *hur̄ 'nut', *buru 'head, top', or *katu 'cat'. For the second element cf. PNC *c̣Ĕrc_V 'marten, weasel' ('squirrel' in Avar).
MEANING:́1 bad 2 evil, wicked 3 shoddy, of poor quality 4 naughty 5 delicate, weak 6 small 7 bad-tempered
BZK:txar 1, 3, 5
GIP:txar 1, 3, 5
ANV:txar 1, 3
BNV:txar 1, 3, 5, 6, tzar 1, 2
LAB:txar 4, 5, 6, tzar 1, 2
BZT:txar 6, 7, tzar 2
ZBR:txar 1, 3, 6, tzar 1, 2
RNC:txar 6
COMMENTS:The forms with initial *c- (tz-) are supposed to be augmentative. The conventional derivation from *sahar̄ ‘old’ (Azkue, Michelena) is implausible, for phonetic and semantic reasons. Phonetic: The expressive variant of Bsq *s (written z) is /š/ (written x), not /č/ (written tx), in the LAB and BNV dialects (Michelena 1961: 190-91), but Azkue regarded txar /čar̄/ ‘bad’ < *sahar̄ ‘old’ as the only exception. Semantic: the typology of the change ‘old’ > ‘bad’, also ‘wicked’ and ‘small’, is not explained. On the other hand, NC cognates proposed here, like Agul (Burshag) č̣ire-r 'bad, dirty', Kryz č̣ir 'wild', Rutul č̣irɨ-dɨ 'lame' are phonetically and semantically straightforward.
MEANING:emphatic suffix on demonstratives and adverbs
BZK:-txe, -xe
GIP:-txe, -xe
ANV:-txe, -xe
BNV:-txe, -xe
LAB:-txe, -xe
ZBR:-txe, -xe
RNC:-txe, -xe
COMMENTS:*-če after consonants, *-še after vowels: hor-txe 'right there', hau-xe 'this one', handi-xe 'a little too big', aita-xe 'grandfather', etc. (Trask 1995: 67).
COMMENTS:A NE Bsq isogloss: cf. SW Bsq *a=r̄ae 'span' (q.v.). Tentatively: *sehume 'span' was original (with a metathetic variant *senhe), and the diminutive was *čehume 'half-span'. If so, PNC *č̣V̆mħV was originally a diminutive and the augmentative (**ǯV̆mħV ?) was lost. But this is speculative. In this model Bsq *senhe 'small, tiny' (q.v.) is an unrelated homonym of *senhe 'span'.
COMMENTS:Most Vasconists impute common origin to several words for 'small' (*tipi, *čiki), though we think they were originally distinct and eventually blended in forms such as txipi (LAB,ZBR) and ttiki (ANV).
COMMENTS:In compounds the form is *čol-, e.g. txol-arre 'sparrow' (Trask 1997; Aulestia & White 1992; not in Azkue: cf. txoarre). Trask (1995, 1997) following Michelena (1961) derives *čori from *sori 'luck, fortune' from "the common practice of foretelling the future by observing the flight of birds," a solution that seems ingenious, but misguided and fantastic, in this analysis. *čoloma 'pigeon' is a blend of *čol- + Span. paloma.
COMMENTS:Cf. PEC *č̣V̄ʁVliṭV 'a kind of bird' (sparrow, swallow, snipe, partridge). Phonetic development is complex and unclear. Bsq and the PEC word have the sequence affricate + vowel + resonant + coronal. As with many faunal words, these have probably undergone several expressive changes. Cf. also PEC *čHwV̄r(V)ṭV ‘a kind of bird’ (swallow, starling, lark, etc.).
COMMENTS:Some of the compounded elements are *gero 'later', *-ago 'more' [comparative morpheme], *aśte 'week'; for -lume, -ramu, etc., see Bsq *[lamu].
COMMENTS:Some strange variants of the word for 'sun': iduzki (ANV-Elkano), iruzki (GIP-Donostia; and 4 villages in ANV). Changes of velars to dentals are found sporadically in Bsq (Michelena 1961: 65).
