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Started by Miguel Ibarra
Mon, 26 Apr 1999 00:00
VISIGOTHS AND BASQUE/ Urias-Urrea
Author: Miguel Ibarra
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 00:00
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 00:00
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2526 bytes
Hi Larry, And thanks for your reply. I recently read that the gothic influence was most prominent in the southern parts of Navarre, and it is there that I find an Urrea nameplace. Even if as far as language goes, Visigoths were using only Germanic names and not everyday Gothic but Latin, would they still adhere to the Germanic custom to name places after the leader of their settlements? I understand that Vikings and Normans would use this process in the middle age to name their towns (as Amfreville for the village of lord Anfrei-Onfroi-Umfrei-Humfrei), but I don't know if there is evidence of this process of place-name formation on Gothic settled territories. As far as Urias (it happens to be a surviving contemporary surname) which I had always identified as a typical Basque name (using the same UR root as Urrieta and many other basque surnames), do you think it might have started as a Germanic personal name? Last, if there are so many surnames in Basque which use the root Ur, from a linguistic evolutionary process, and considering the Basque known processes of name creation and evolution, would you say it is most likely that Urrea is a name of pure Basque origin related from a semantic point of view to these other Basque names? Some time ago you were kind enough to reply to my inquiry about the meaning of the name Urrea, and I believe you told me then that could be related to the root Ur possibly meaning Gold or Hazel (or was it Chestnut?) I was also recently told of a bizarre story which says that the Urreas were in ancient times traders of gold in the middle east, and that from this trade the appelative Ur-rea was formed. Is "Ur" an original Basque word or was it taken from Latin "aurum" (gold); is spanish "oro" of Basque or Latin origin? Ithank you again for your help. Miguel Ibarra
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