BASQUE-ROMANCE CONTACT AND PHASES OF A GRAMMATICAL LOAN: THE LATIN-ROMANCE ORIGIN OF BASQUE COORDINATION

Abstract

A Latin-Romance etymology is proposed for the three most widespread coordinating connectives of the Basque language, the conjunctive eta and the disjunctives edo and ala, which would have entered as loans at various stages in the long history of contact between Basque and Latin or, later, Romance. Both of the specific etymons proposed as a joint hypothesis that links and encompasses the three coordinators find the arguments required for their defence in linguistic theory.