Linguistic connections between Basques and Slavs (Veneti) in antiquity

The publication of the monumental book “Veneti, naši davni predniki“, by Bor, Šavli, and Tomažič⁽¹⁾ can be compared to nothing less than the igniting of a bonfire to light the darkness, a darkness which correctly describes the written history of the Slovenian people up to that point. It is not so much that their major thesis, i.e., the aboriginal nature of Slovenes and Slavs in general, has not previously been considered (indeed, previous thinkers are well documented), it is that it has never been put together so logically, with so much compelling evidence, such coherence, and such boldness. For the first time, it appears, Slovenes are allowed to write their own history without foreign domination. It is not our purpose here to question or even supplement the main thesis – this we accept as now a given – but rather to look into some of the lesser aspects of their work to see if we, the eager and supportive amateurs, can fit together the small pieces which they left unattended.

One such small piece is the tantalizing suggestion that there appears to be a linguistic connection between the Slovenian and Basque languages (other languages are touched on as well, but we concentrate on the Basques). A few cursory examples are given in the book, enough to wet the appetite, but not enough to give strength to the argument. We have decided to look further into this question in the hope of shedding additional light on the matter. The tools at our disposal are meager, consisting primarily of the Basque,⁽²⁾ as well as Slovenian,⁽³⁾ and Czech⁽⁴⁾ dictionaries. We compare the modern Basque language with the modern Slovenian and Czech languages, which immediately suggests that we have eliminated a whole segment of the comparison. Without doubt knowledge of the more antique forms of each language would be very useful since similarities, if they ever existed, are slowly erased with time. Nonetheless we hoped that enough evidence has remained to this day to allow a definitive statement on any linguistic connection.

It may yet be, of course, that modern techniques of DNA analysis will either prove or disprove anything we say here. These techniques, while still in their early stages, have the potential of being model free and definitive. We do not believe that they have yet arrived at their full potential, so that there is still room for other techniques, such as linguistic comparisons, to answer some questions. Should it eventually be proven via DNA that there is no connection between Basques and Slav peoples, however, we will be left with the mystery of the linguistic similarities which we hope to show below, are far beyond accidental. Perhaps the similarities in that case stem from an intermixing or a trade language.

Before launching into a linguistic comparison, it is tantalizing to speculate about the very name Basques. The Roman appellation for these people was Vascones, sometimes written as Vascani. It is easy to see how the betatism has transformed the “V” into a “B” to result in the modern word. But the occasional writing of Vascones as Vascani is curious. It does not take much imagination to transform the word into Vaščani, which immediately provides a link to Slovenian, or Venetic, language. It should be remembered that one of the major themes of Bor et al.⁽¹⁾ is that the distinguishing feature of the Veneti is their basic cultural unit, the Village. Might it not be possible that the Basques originally called themselves “The Village People” or Vaščani?

[Allowing ourselves one more bit of speculation regarding Roman writing, we look at the word Druids, or the wood people who worshiped trees on the British Isles. Since the Romans generally used the printed letter V whenever a U is called-for, it is very likely that they wrote DRVIDES for Druides. But might it not be so that in this particular case they really wanted to use the letter V? In that case we are talking about Drvides, which immediately suggests the word drva or drevo. The connection between the name Druids and the tree worship then becomes much more logical. Granted this is stretching things a bit, but it is food for thought.]

As we stated in our abstract, a cursory examination of the Basque language would suggest at most an accidental connection between Slavic and Basque. Indeed, we were prepared to abandon the project when one of us (PJ) noticed an unusually high correspondence among words, which surely would have already existed in antiquity. These include such words as relating to body parts, geographical features, agricultural terms, and the lexicon of hunters and gatherers in general. Our initial attention was particularly focused on the word gori and its combinations, which in Basque describe many items dealing with heat or burning, as well as items dealing with elevation, highest praise, high passion, and higher authority. Strangely enough, or perhaps not so strangely, this is identical to what is used in the Slovenian language. The indefinite verb “to burn” is in Basque actually erraustu, while words derived from gori refer perhaps more to heat. Nonetheless, the similarity is stunning. The word for flame is gar, which in Slovenian has been softened to žar. While gori is an adjective describing a burning item more correctly called goreči in Slovenian, the adjective goren has the Slovenian equivalent of najgorjši (supreme, exalted, most high), the indefinite verb goritu = ogreti (to heat), the adverb gora = gori (up or upward), etc., etc. In Slavic languages the word gora also refers to a mountain, which, like a fire, rises upward to the sky. This appears to have been altered in Basque to mendi (most likely Latinized from montes), but the word for an apex is goraldi (vrh in Slovenian) thus retaining the root. Further we find that to elevate = goratu, while elevation = gorapen. It would seem much more than pure accident that two apparently unrelated languages (according to linguists) would use the identical root word to form words with very different meaning, and have the meaning of these words correspond exactly in the two languages. This spurred on a further examination.

To a much lesser extent these relationships exist in English as well. Thus elevation (height) and exalted one (highness) derive from the same word, while high passion can be viewed as related to burning only as a metaphor, as in burning passion. But the use of the same root word for heat, burning, high status, mountains, heights and passion are nonexistent in English, while both Basque and Slavic describe all these with the root word gori. [Quite aside, in the course of this search the large number of English words with Slavic derivatives, which do not have Latin or Germanic roots, surprised us]. Nor are they found in the Latin language, which many might consider as the link in the similarities between Basque and Slavic. Thus in Latin, e.g., up = sursum, fire = ignus, mountains = montes, etc.

When comparing Basque and Slavic it would be most useful to have a strong command of several Slavic languages, both the ancient and modern forms, since it may be that some languages have retained the ancient forms wile others were subject to change. At our disposal were only the Czech and Slovenian languages, but even with these the usefulness of a multi-language approach was evident, particularly when trying to unravel what appears to be only a vague connection in one language, but absolutely clear in another. The sum of our work is given in the Appendix with the words in alphabetical order. A few explanations of Basque are in order for a better appreciation of the comparisons. First of all, no Basque word begins with the letter R. Thus we find the word for river as erreka and not reka. The indefinite verbs have the –tu ending while in Slovenian they end in -ti. Thus we have zoritu, which means zoriti (to ripen). While in Slovenian the use of the article ta, as in ta prvi, is fading from use, it is still used in Basque except that it is postpositional, as in mamata, or pivoto (i.e., the mother and the beer). Postpositional articles are also found in Bulgarian and Macedonian languages. We also point out again the interchangeability of letters b and v due to betatism. With this prelude we welcome the reader to peruse the appendix.

Most of the comparisons in the appendix are self-explanatory. One could write a story about many of the words but it is not our intent to belabor these. We would include one, however, namely the word for knee (belanue), which bears only a slight resemblance to the Slovenian word koleno. The interesting fact is that in both Basque (belaunaldi) and in Slavic (pokolenje) the word for generation stems from the root word for knee. While this occurs in Latin as well where genu (knee) and genus (ancestry) are related, one must ask just who borrowed what from whom. Ancient pre-Roman Venetic inscriptions clearly indicate that the word for wife (or woman) is gena, later softened into the Slovenian word žena (a clear reference to ancestry). We dare say the Romans did much borrowing. At the very least the knee connection indicates that the Basque language did not originate in a vacuum, as some would have us believe, but had contact with the rest of Europe from the beginning.

It is already clear from many of the words in the appendix that the Basque words consist of root a word to which one attaches adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc. to form new words. This is entirely similar to the way Slavic words are constructed. We gave an example in the abstract of črešnja (čer – ješnja, food with a rock), but we could give countless other examples, such as iskra (iz ker-a, from a rock). We are assured by Prof. Rozalyn Frank of the University of Iowa that this type of word formation is not common, but it does occur in both Basque and Slavic.

It would be most gratifying if one could determine a fingerprint, which would be a foolproof method of identifying a Slavic language. The problem, which exists now is that it is difficult to determine just who borrowed from whom in the course of language development. Such is the case, for example, with counting from one to ten. Nearly all languages have very similar words for these numbers. The knee-jerk reaction of historians is to give credit to the Romans or perhaps the Indus people. But is this really so? A careful scrutiny of the words for numbers reveals this interesting fact: In ALL Slavic languages there occurs a rhythm and rhyme (and reason) to the counting system. The numbers are paired thusly: ena-dva, tri-štiri, pet-šest, sedem-osem, devet–deset. If the wording is slightly changed, e.g., to seden by the Primorci, the rhyme is maintained by also changing osem to osen. Indeed, the rhyme is even more pronounced if one realizes that the word for 5 (pet) comes from pest (i.e., fist, containing 5 fingers. Even in English the words five and fist are related). Thus we could say pest-šest. Perhaps šest comes from še pest, or, more than a fist. This would give meaning and reason to the words. No such reason exists in other languages.

Rhyme and reason in the numbering system are not found in English, Latin, Germanic, or any of the Romance languages. We are tempted to suggest that the counting originated among Slavic peoples, and that the Romans borrowed the words. The subtleties of the rhyme eluded the borrowers. Whatever the case, we suggest that the rhyme in the counting system may be perhaps the fingerprint we are looking for. It is found in Old Prussian so that we are confident in stating that these were a Slavic people. By contrast, the rhyme is not found in the Basque language, which at first glance would seem to negate their Slavic connection. However, in view of the many similar antique words, one can also reach a different conclusion, namely that the split, if such was the case, occurred even before the dawning of the numbering system. Or, perhaps, the two tribes mixed in antiquity due to trade, heavily borrowing words from each other. Whatever the case, the Basques do not appear as unique as some historians would have us believe.

As a final thought, there is no doubt that at the time of the Venetic era (say 1000 B.C.) the numbering system was already in existence. It would be most illuminating to get an idea of their words for numbers. We have not been able to find these in any books on the Veneti. If such can be found, and if a rhyme exists, we dare say that this would be a substantial contribution as proof of their Slavic origins.

References

1. Bor, Matej; Šavli, Jožko; Tomažič, Ivan: Veneti naši davni predniki, Editiones Veneti, Ljubljana 1989.
2. Aulestia, Gorka; White, Linda: Basque-English — English-Basque Dictionary, University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada, 1992.
3. Grad, Anton: Angleško-Slovenski slovar, Univerzitetna Knjižnica, Maribor, 1999.
4. Resepka, Miroslav: “Anglicko-Ceski — Cesko-Anglicki Slovnik”, Fin Publishing, Olomouc, 1998.

Povzetek

Številni učenjaki so poskušali pravilno uvrstiti baskovski jezik med ostale evropske jezike. Ti poskusi so bili v glavnem neuspešni. Nekateri so domnevali, da so Baski potomci nekdanjih kromanjoncev, ki so živeli tam pred trideset tisoč leti. V knjigi “Veneti, naši davni predniki” so Šavli, Bor in Tomažič opozorili na povezave med Baski in Veneti, našimi slovanskimi predniki. Navedli so nekaj primerov podobnih besed v obeh jezikih, niso pa tega globlje obdelali. Nepopustljivo prepričanje nekaterih zgodovinarjev, da so Slovani prišli v Evropo šele v 6. stoletju, za kar pa nimajo zadostnih dokazov, je preprečevalo raziskovanje povezav med Baski in Slovani. Midva sva globlje raziskala jezikovne povezave med tema ljudstvoma in ugotovila zanimivo dejstvo. Medtem ko je na splošno videti zelo malo podobnosti med tema jezikoma (videti so skoraj naključne), pa opazimo, da so podobnosti številne, ko se omejimo na besede, ki so lahko obstajale v daljni preteklosti (morebiti že v kameni dobi). Podobnosti najdemo ne le v besedah, temveč tudi v besedni zgradbi. Na primer, kot v slovanskih jezikih tudi v baskovščini tvorimo nove besede iz osnovnih besed (primer: črešnja = čer ješnja = jed s koščico). Ali pa: baskovska pomanjševalna končnica -ška je podobna slovenski. Predstavila bova še številne druge primere, pa tudi povezave z drugimi jeziki. Nagibava se k temu, da bi dala prav Šavliju, Boru in Tomažiču, da so Baski in Veneti podobni ljudje, ki so se ločili že v davnini.

Appendix

(Examples of Basque – Slavic Linguistic Similarities)

We present below a comparative instrument designed to illustrate similarities between Basque and Slavic languages. The primary search was done by one of us (Petr Jandáček), a Czech, thus it often occurs that Czech words seem more in concert with Basque. However, as a rule, Slovenian words tend to retain a closer comparison.

We again point out that the letters B and V, as well as P and F are often interchangeable. M and N are often replaced with each other as are the velars H, K and G. The dentals C,Č, S,Š, Z,Ž are all mutually interchangeable. The letter X is pronounced as Š, while TX is equivalent to Č. While in Slavic languages the letter R often serves as the sixth vowel (pronounced “er”), to the point where some words contain no vowels at all, Basque words can never begin with the letter R nor even with a consonant cluster such as “sl”, “st”, “pr”. Thus, for example, roditi becomes erditu, while reka becomes ereka. In a similar vein, regarding consonant clusters, sredi becomes asterdi. The Basque indefinite verbs end in -tu, while in Slovenian they end in -ti.

A

B

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

S

T

U

X

Z

The most conspicuous constellation of words, which are similar in Basque and Slavic are the anatomical features of the paleolithic primitive Venuses (like the Venus of Vestrince). Examples:

In addition, recall the cluster of words using the root word gori, discussed in the text.

Authors

Petr Jandacek & Lojze Arko