Basque ethnography at a glance

Jairo Castillo. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Let us return to our brief ethnolinguistic review of the names which the months of the year receive in Basque [See The months of the year in Basque (1)].

Apiril ‘April’. This name comes to us from Latin Aprῑlis, with the tentative double meaning of ‘month of Aphrodite’ (from Greek Aphrô), or ‘month when flowers bloom’ (from Latin aperῑre ‘open’). Equally interesting is the form jorrail, understood by Caro Baroja as ‘month or moon for weeding’, this month being typically dedicated to hoeing and removing weeds from cultivated fields. And we shall also mention the form opail, which would, according to Caro Baroja, refer to offerings (opa izan/egin ‘offer’ + (h)il ‘month or moon’) or bread rolls (opil ꞊ ogi ‘bread’ + bil ‘round’), formerly traditional at this time of the year.

Maiatz ‘May’. This name, from Latin Maius, venerated by Romans as the goddess of spring, seems to be related to the Greek goddess Maia. The form loreil, lore ‘flower’ + (h)il ‘month or moon’, proves semantically quite close to it. There is also another group of forms, such as orril, ostoil and ostaro, composed of orri/(h)osto ‘leaf’ + (h)il ‘month or moon’ or aro ‘time, season’, to describe the season when the vegetable world springs back to life.

Ekain ‘June’. We take this beautiful name from the Northern Basque Country, from e(guz)k(i) ‘sun’ + gain ‘above’, which could be interpreted as ‘solstice’, that is, the time at which the sun reaches its maximum declination. We also have the form bagil, of diffuse origin, which Astarloa interpreted as ‘month or moon of the beans’ (baba + (h)il), Van Eys as ‘month or moon for cutting’ (ebaki + (h)il), and Campión as ‘month or moon of the beeches’ (bagus + (h)il). A couple of forms more for the sixth month of our calendar: errearo, which Campión translated as ‘time of heat’, from erre ‘burn’ + aro ‘time, season’, and erearo, which seems to refer to sowing, from erein ‘sow’. And last but not least, the curious Zuberoan form arramaiatz, which would come to mean ‘May again or second May’.

Uztail ‘July’. Name of transparent formation, uzta ‘harvest’ + (h)il ‘month or moon’, which would mean ‘month or moon of the harvest’. We shall take advantage at this stage to point out that there are forms which designate more than one month. Such is the case of garagarril, which is used to name July and also June. And the same happens with other forms. But let us continue to recall less frequently used or less-known names, so they do not fall into oblivion. The aforementioned form garagarril would mean ‘month or moon of the barley’, whereas garil would allude to the ‘month or moon of the wheat’, further highlighting the connection between this month and the harvest.

Abuztu ‘August’. Once again a name of Latin origin for our calendar, as the sixth month of the Roman calendar (Sextilis) would be dedicated to Emperor Augustus. Two other forms certainly deserve our attention. One is agorril, which Caro Baroja defines as ‘dry month or moon’. The other is daguenil, interpreted by Azkue as ‘end of summer month or moon’ and transformed by Arana into the neologism dagonil.

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.