« With reference to my letter « the early basque vocabulary », in your number of august 14, Prince L.-Lucien Bonaparte has kindly sent one a letter of his printed in the Courrier de Bayonne, mai 28, 1879, containing the list of Basque words from Marinaeus Siculus in the Spanish edition of 1530. The Prince has thus a double priority over Prof. J. Vinson in having been the first to cite the passage, and also in having given it from the spanish of 1530, instead of the Latin edition of 1533.
« He also adds the following observations which are far too valuable to be lost :
« 1. Urcia, God, is simply orzia thunder, synonymous with ostia, ihurzuria, turmoya, etc. Orzia or ortzia belongs to the Bas-Navarrais dialect, and I have heard it at Mendionde, at Saint-Martin-d’Arberoue, at Briscous, etc. As to ortzegun, thursday, is signifies « day of thunder » ; a fact I remarked upon in october 1878, in a note entitled « the Days of the week in Basque » published in the Sabbath Memorial, january 1879.
« 2. Ardum, wine, is very near the souletin which pronounces ardou giving the « ou » the sound of the nasal « ou » or « um » in Portuguese, as um, one. The final m in ardum probably serves only to nasalize the preceding vowel, since the Basque has no words terminated with m consonant.
