Older Loanwords From Latin

Level 6

Old Latin words took Basque shape: pacem → bake (peace), regem → errege (king), castellum → gaztelu (castle).

How It Works

1. Common old loans. errege (king), lege (law), liburu (book), bake (peace), gaztelu (castle), gela (room), dorre (tower), gorputz (body), eliza (church), aingeru (angel).

2. How they changed.

  • No r at the start. A vowel was added: regem → errege. See r and rr.
  • Soft first sounds. p, t, k at the start became b, d, g: pacem → bake, picem → bike (pitch), turrem → dorre, cellam → gela, corpus → gorputz.
  • Hard k. Latin c before e stayed k: pacem → bake, while Spanish has paz and French paix. This shows how early the word came in.
  • l between vowels. One l became r (angelum → aingeru), and double ll became l (castellum → gaztelu).
  • n between vowels could disappear: arenam → harea (sand).

3. Grammar. These nouns work like any other: erregea, erregearen, liburuak, gazteluan. See definite article -a.

4. Newer loans. Later loans keep the shape of the source language more closely and follow the modern rules in spelling loanwords.

Tip: When a Basque word looks like a Spanish or French word with a softer first sound or an extra vowel, it may be an old Latin loan.

Examples (5)

  1. Erregeak gaztelu handi batean bizi ziren.

    The kings lived in a big castle.

    errege comes from regem; gaztelu from castellum.

  2. Liburu hau oso interesgarria da.

    This book is very interesting.

    liburu comes from librum.

  3. Bakea nahi dugu.

    We want peace.

    bake comes from pacem, with a soft b and a hard k.

  4. Dorreko gela txikian lo egin genuen.

    We slept in the small room in the tower.

    dorre comes from turrem (Spanish torre); gela from cellam.

  5. Aingeru baten irudia dago elizan.

    There is a picture of an angel in the church.

    aingeru comes from angelum; eliza from ecclesia.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the Spanish word instead of the old Basque loan.

    Libro bat irakurri dut.
    Liburu bat irakurri dut.

    The Basque word is liburu, the old Latin loan. libro is Spanish.

  • Starting a word with r.

    Regea etorri da.
    Erregea etorri da.

    Old Basque words do not start with r. The Latin loan became errege, with an extra vowel.

How It Connects

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Older Loanwords From LatinLevel 6

Learn This First

Older loanwords follow loanword spelling.