Proto-Basque: *ɦerce / *ɦeśte
Meaning: intestine
Bizkaian: este
Gipuzkoan: este
High Navarrese: este, ertze
Low Navarrese: hertze, herze
Salazarese: erze
Lapurdian: hertze, erze
Baztanese: ertze, erze
Zuberoan: ertse, érxe
Roncalese: ertze, erze, érxe
Comments: There is dialectal variation of -rc- / -śt-, as in *borc / *bośt 'five' (q.v.), *ɦorci / *ɦośti ‘sky, storm’ (q.v.), and some other words. This appears to be an old morphological alternation, later formalized as dialectal. Leizarraga (16 c.) recorded {halsarrak} 'entrañas', which appears to be another permutation of this root (i.e., halśar̄, dissimilated < *ɦerśa-r̄).
