1) are there any native non-compound words that are four syllables or longer? ホトトギス hototógisu "lesser cuckoo" is one. I have found some minimal pairs or near minimal pairs for some vowel sequences. I should probably go through my resources though and see what patterns there are and what limitation...
:es-pv: Basque Bi hankaz dabilena etsaia da. /bi ankas̻ dabiʎena et͡s̺ai.a da/ [bi ankas̻ taβiʎena et͡s̺ai.a ða] bi hanka=z d-a-bil-∅-en=a etsai=a da two leg=INSTR.INDEF 3.PRS-PRS-walk-SG-REL=ABS.SG enemy=ABS.SG COP.PRS.3SG Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Lau hankaz dabilena, edo hegoak dau...
:es-pv: Basque Basque forms these types of indefinite pronouns by adding -bait to the corresponding question word. (In some of these cases, the translation depends on which part of the sentence is the focus; I'm assuming that the second sentence in each pair is meant to be an answer to the first.) (...
Nahi nuelako egin nuen.
/nai nu.elako egin nu.en/ nahi-∅ n-∅-u-en-lako egi-n n-∅-u-en
desire-ABS.INDF 1SG.ERG.3.ABS-SG.ABS-have-PST-because do-PP 1SG.ERG.3.ABS-SG.ABS-AUX-PST I did it because I wanted to.
:es-pv: Basque Nork egiten du nik baino azkar korrika? /nork egiten du nik baɲo as̻kar korika/ [nork eɣiten du ni paɲo as̻kar korika] nor-k egi-ten d-∅-u-∅ ni-k baino azkar korrika=∅ who-ERG do-PRESP 3.ABS.PRS-SG.ABS-AUX-3SG.ERG 1SG-ERG than fast running=ABS.INDF Who runs faster than me? Inork ez du...
:es-pv: Basque Elurra iparraldean egiten du bakarrik, baina euria alde guztietan egiten du. /elura iparalde.an egiten du bakarik | baɲa euɾi.a alde gus̻ti.etan egiten du/ elurr=a iparralde=an egi-ten d-∅-u-∅ bakarrik | baina euri=a alde guzti=etan egi-ten d-∅-u-∅ snow=ABS.SG north=INESS.SG do-PRESP ...
:es-pv: Basque Nola hil nintzen galdetzen dutenean, esaiezu: artean haserre. /nola il nint͡s̻en galdet͡s̻en dutene.an | es̺ai.es̻u ‖ arte.an as̺ere/ nola hil-∅ n-i-n-za-en-n galde-tzen d-∅-u-te-n=ean | e-sa-∅-i-e-zu ‖ artean haserre how die-PP 1SG.ABS-PST-PST-AUX-PST-COMP.Q ask-PRESP 3.ABS-SG.ABS-AU...
...can you really rule out cases of similarity only due to later sound changes, when those soundchanges are themselves common, or areally common? Okay, that's also a good point, but it just occurred to me that there's another argument against a connection between aurum and urre via a non-Italic IE ...
However, we also have to bear in mind that Vasconic had been living alongside Indo-European languages, including undescribed Indo-European languages that may well have been closely related to Italo-Celtic, for hundreds if not thousands of years before the era of Latin-to-Proto-Basque borrowings - a...
:es-pv: bi "two" :eng: bi- , :lat: bis "twice" :es-pv: sei "six" :ita: sei "six", :esp: :por: seis "six" :es-pv: urre "gold" :lat: aurum "gold" I'm not sure, given how little we know of proto-Vasconic, if we could make the argument that these are truly not cognates. Apparently bi was originally big...