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A Red Herring? Our correspondent Miguel Echegaray of Madrid has contributed several additional suggestions of possible etymological connections between Basque and English words. (cf. Newsletter 14, p.3). One attractive suggestion would find a relationship between English herring and Basque arrain ‘fish.’ The English word for this important Atlantic fish is attested already as Old English haering, and there are related words in continental High and Low German and Dutch. But the word dos not have a firm pedigree in the Germanic family, as it is lacking in the other branches, Scandinavian and Gothic, nor do related words occur in other branches of the Indo-European family. As the homeland of this family is usually thought to be in Eastern Europe, one would not expect to find a word for an Atlantic sea fish (not found in the Mediterranean) in its parent language. Sr. Echegaray refrains from trying to decide whether the West Germanic word comes from the Basque or vice versa. Basque contacts with Western European fishing fleets are doubtless extremely old. It may be relevant that the Basque coast was raided by Germanic seafarers during the 5th century A.D. The similar words in Romance languages, such as French hareng, Gascon arenc, and Spanich arenque, are thought to be borrowed from Germanic Frankish haring, starting with French and entering Spain from the Cantabrian coast. |
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