Basque ethnography at a glance

Luis Manuel Peña.

This is certainly an exceptional opportunity to review the names of the months in Basque. Apart from the twelve forms established by Euskaltzaindia, the Academy of the Basque Language, for standard Basque, there are, as it happens, many others of different origin and formation, which provide us with abundant ethnolinguistic and ethnographic material to better understand our ancestors’ way of thinking.

We shall recall some of them, taking the Basque General Dictionary, launched by the great philologist and linguist Mitxelena, and here shortened to OEH (Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia), as a starting point. In order to avoid confusion, we shall give the forms without the absolutive case suffix (-a) which corresponds to the singular article and usually accompanies them in their generic use: urtarril, otsail… Except for forms with an organic -a, inherent to the article-less form itself, which we shall maintain.

Urtarril ‘January’. Alongside this form, many dialectal variants coexist, with small phonological variations: urtaril, urteil, usterril, urtarrail, hurtahila, urtarla… The OEH proposes its etymology: urta-berr(i)-(h)il ‘new year’s month’. Other than that, we have two more precious names to designate the first month of our current calendar, ilbeltz and beltzil, seemingly composed of (h)il ‘month or moon’ and beltz ‘black or dark’, in that order, and the other way around, respectively, referring to the darkness prevailing during this solstitial season or which comes with the new moon.

Otsail ‘February’. The OEH does not hint at its etymology, and Caro Baroja follows Astarloa in drawing a connection with the words otso ‘wolf’ or hotz ‘cold’; there is, however, a clear zoological parallel between the term otsail ‘month or moon of wolves’ with katail ‘month or moon of cats’ and zezeil ‘month or moon of bulls’, which are also used to designate the second month of our Gregorian calendar. It would appear that the association of wolves, cats and bulls with this month might well be connected to their mating time, which is usually this time; but we shall not rule out, at least in some cases, possible ancient rites related to the mentioned animals, as Caro Baroja states. And lastly, let us introduce another name for February: barantaila. The OEH acknowledges the etymological proposal of Gorostiaga, which points to the origin of the Latin term parentalia or parantalia (funeral festivities in honour of the dead, including banquets and sacred offerings, which were celebrated in ancient Rome between 13 and 21 February).

Martxo ‘March’. This name of Latin origin (Martius), along with marti, used in the western part of the country, refers to Mars, god of war, for military campaigns started the first month of the old Roman calendar (which was precisely March). But we have another beautiful, less martial name for March, which is epail. It seems that there is some consensus to relate it to the logging and/or pruning of this time of the year, the verb ebaki ‘cut’ being at the root of the form.

Joseba Santxo Uriarte – Philologist and researcher

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa

A previous post dedicated to The days of the week in Basque might likewise be of interest.