Edward Spencer Dodgson an Hugo Schuchardt (156-02534)

von Edward Spencer Dodgson

an Hugo Schuchardt

Barcelona

08. 12. 1894

language Englisch

Schlagwörter: Romania (Zeitschrift) Euskara (Organ für die Interessen der "Baskischen Gesellschaft") Thomas, Thomas Llewellyn Vinson, Julien Eys, Willem Jan van Larramendi, Manuel de Morel Fatio, Alfred Soroa y Lasa, Marcelino

Zitiervorschlag: Edward Spencer Dodgson an Hugo Schuchardt (156-02534). Barcelona, 08. 12. 1894. Hrsg. von Bernhard Hurch (2015). In: Bernhard Hurch (Hrsg.): Hugo Schuchardt Archiv. Online unter https://gams.uni-graz.at/o:hsa.letter.3511, abgerufen am 28. 03. 2024. Handle: hdl.handle.net/11471/518.10.1.3511.


|1|

8 December 1894.
address
41 Hôtel Condal 41, 23 Boqueria 23,
Barcelona.

Dear Dr. Schuchardt

I recieved yesterday your postcard of the 3rd You still leave me without your opinion on certain etymologies that I have suggested to you such as aps, acheter etc: etc: Do you think Greek NAI meaning yes is from Basque nai and nahi? Assent is an act of the will. I believe I am right in saying that this Greek word is devoid of relatives in the other languages of the family, and may not the Pelasgi have been Basque? Mr. Suarez, sublibrarian of the University here has introduced me to this club, Ateneo Barcelones. I had the same privilege in 1888. It has a good library and the reading room is full of many reviews and newspapers in many |2| languages. The University Library has Novia de Salcedos Dictionary of which the proofs were insufficiently corrected by Antia the late rector of Urnieta, but scarcely any other books on or in Basque. It has the Virgil of Venice 1470 by a German printer from Spires. I bought at Valencia the new edition of the earliest book printed there and probably in all Spain. I saw the original in the University there and sent you the prospectus. My German companion left me this day fortnight. He was to arrive in Paris last Sunday. He has much to learn. I owe him 400 pesetas. He will give me time. I lost about 200 francs at least over my edition of Capanaga, of which very few copies have been bought; |3| but I am now planning an edition of Rafael Micoleta a Bilbao priest of 1653. I have nearly finished my copy of his glossary and have quite finished that of his dialogues as published in the Revista de Ciencias Historicas tomo 2. Barcelona 1881 which edition is full of blunders. I have asked Mr. Thomas to revise my amended text in presence of the manuscript which is among the Spanish mss in the British Museum and mentioned by Paulus Merula in his Cosmographia printed by the Elzevirs. A copy of this book is on the catalogue of the University of Barcelona but the librarians cannot find it! J. I. Arana says he mentioned Micoleta long ago in his inedited Basque Bibliography. Vinson says he has known of it depuis fort longtemps – Why 1|4| they [sic] does he not mention it or Colmenars books, which he also claims to have known, anywhere in his Bibliography? He does mention Arquiztain [sic], Bullet, Nicolas Antonio, & Hervas – but not in their proper places, only incidentally and subordinately. He also omits articles of Van Eys, Sampere, & Fitas supplement to Larramendi also published in the 4 tomos of the aforesaid Revista. In respect of Ypuscoa and Guipuzcoa I am much interested by seeing in Morel Fatios recent article in the Romania that Isopete was once Guisopete. I have noted various cases of the falling away of initial g and b and v in Basque, like the F in Greek. in Micoleta there is 2|5| varina for arina = light, in Voltaire, of which I have an edition that appears to be unknown, to Vinson to whom I shall send it soon, there is bona for ona = good.

Micoleta is very like Capanaga. but he has ja for da & ta the conjunction. I know no other author who writes so – also as a proof, (like Pouvreaus dur = water & river, & Durango = on the other side of the river) of the common Keltic & Basque origin of the word for water & year which means “the running out” or “flowing away like water”, urte is written by Micoleta durte.

He also writes dustia & |6| even deustria (cf: Gar]r[itaonandias hostria = hostia) for guztia, and damua for hamua though this last may be a misprint. Vinson has not sent me any proof for my corrigenda to my article on Capanaga in the R. de L. As that Erratum was necessitated chiefly by the want of a proof for the article itself, it seems very foolish on his part to have sent none. I have always kept him au courant for my address, and I told him I had some important additions to make. Oh that I had known Micoleta in time! He and Araquiztain have taught me many things. A. teaches me that on p. 148 of my Capanaga the true 3|7| reading is egun guren egunean. I almost printed it so, as I guessed that egun guren must mean Holy Thursday, but no one answered my questions anent it.

Egüen guren eguna is a variant according to Arakiztain. Many Biscayans call Thursday Egüen or Eguben, even Egunben, as in the Gernika tailors book which I sent you. I find in this little book also the justification of what I read in the original Capanaga where speaking of the gates of heaven as open he says idigiac eta a zabalak.

As the original is badly |8| printed throughout and etaazabalak is written as one word I hesitated, but I thought all the time it might be the English idiom “open, and that, wide” = “open and widely so, i. e. widely open” – But having no precedent in my memory I laid it aside: - first thoughts were best: but the Gernika man has the same idiom somewhere – you will easily find it. I find a case of m final in my Voltoire dudem beçala for duden, as he writes dudan several times. I also find there one case of the not unfrequent Labourdin usage of ba, as a prefix, being equal to la the conjunctive suffix. In form it is the suppositive or hypothetic. As far as I remember it 4|9| only occurs after nahi nuke und so weiter – So that the underlying thought may be “I should desire (it) if you would take the measure for me” – But the French is “Je voudrois que me prînsiez la mesure.” In the following phrase Voltoire puts a cein which is really superfl]l[uous with the n in the verbal termination before egatik meaning for those “noiz ethorico naiz çure echera bors ehun escutu cein sor baiqueituçuenegatic”? So also I find in D’Urte a case where |10|nondik = “par où, through which”, is superfluous as the meaning is expressed by the relative n at the end of the verb. The Californiako Eskual Herria has published my two extracts from Lizarragas posthumous & badly printed sermons & another from the 1760 edition of Perochegi and also my translation of Dulce Domum & of Lenz Canaresfilchen. I think I told you that in |11| the latter instead of “at the brightest light of the day” it ought to be “argizaiten ordu dirdirantenaz”. I had momentarily forgotten the meaning of licht in Luxembourgeois though I had it right in my notes “din gura profesorului” A boy at Anzuola seeing my pockets full of books said I was chit liburutsua very book-ful. Marcelino Soroa y Lasa, whose new book I have not seen, writes interesting and amusing plays, but puts bad grammar into the mouth of all his personae indiscriminately. I fear he 5|12| knows no better. Neither does he correct his proofs sufficiently. Several Spaniards say that ca cannot come from carájo, as you propose. Perco in Portuguese is something like crech in Catalan – perdo – credo. The men in the provinces of Castellon & Valencia wear as a headdress mokanesas like those of the French Basque girls, but with more of a pig-tail behind. 6

You will not be able to read this scrawl. I have not heard anything about the 2nd number for 1894 of the Euskara. Goodbye. I wish you a happy Christmas and New Year. I have not yet been up to Monserrat.

Yours truly
E. S. Dodgson.

7 There might be more than one soul that coud apply these words to itself, or even ditzakena rather than balituzke.

|10|8 in Bihotz Sacratuaren Hilhabethea (Bayonne 1894) p. 36 the ba in nahi ginuke giristino guziek ohoratzen balute may be explained as I have attempted in the sentence from Voltoire but a harder case occurs on p. 116. Baditeke arima – bat baino gehiago hitz horiec beretzat hartzeco balituzke. Here I simply9 say the whole phrase is badly put together after gehiago


1 Randnotiz auf der rechten Seite: some of Micoletas words are not in Novia de Salcedos Lexikon.

2 Randnotiz auf der linken Seite: 1894 ko urtea & ur bezala urten da orai.

3 Randnotiz auf der linken Seite: I have often heard Spaniards say vaya and baya = “let him go.” in the sense of yes. Dont the French say allez in the same sense sometimes?

4 Randnotiz auf der linken Seite: I long to go back to the Abalarien urarteak which I explored in 1886.

5 Randnotiz auf der linken Seite: one would expect I think a very with a partitive and relatival ending in enik. e. g. ditzakenik

6 Randnotiz auf der rechten Seite: Mr Courtney has returned my article on D’Urte as being too philological for the Fortnightly Review.

7 Randnotiz auf der rechten Seite.

8 Randnotiz auf der linken Seite.

9 Dodgson setzt am rechten Seitenrand fort.

Faksimiles: Universitätsbibliothek Graz Abteilung für Sondersammlungen, Creative commons CC BY-NC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (Sig. 02534)