Urtzi (also ortzi) is an ancient
Basque language term which is believed to either represent an old
common noun
A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
for the sky, or to have been a name for a pre-Christian
sky deity
The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky.
The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson's ''Motif ...
.
[ Trask, L. ''The History of Basque'' (1997) ]Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
[Jose M. de Barandiaran ''Mitologia Vasca'' (1996) Txertoa ]
Controversy
The existence of a Basque mythological figure, ''Urtzi'', has been questioned in numerous discussions. The argument for ''Urtzi'' having been a "Basque sky god" is based on two main arguments:
The first argument is that Basque has numerous calendric and meteorological terms which contain forms of the root (with the variants , , and ), for example:
[
* ']rainbow
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...
' ( + 'horn')
* 'sky, thunder
Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning pr ...
'
* (> ) 'red sky' ( + 'red')
* 'daylight' ( + 'light')
* 'Thursday' ( + 'day')
* 'clear sky' ( + 'clean')
This has led to a popular modern interpretation of Urtzi as a sky god. The modern Basque word for sky, , is a cognate of (probably a loanword from) the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
'. The word or is not productive in the modern Basque language.[
The second argument is based on the 12th-century account, the ]Codex Calixtinus
The (also ''Compostellus'') is the main witness for the 12th-century , or the Book of Saint James. It is a pseudepigraph attributed to Pope Callixtus II; its principal author or compilator is referred to as "Pseudo-Callixtus", often identified wi ...
, of Aymeric Picaud Aymeric Picaud was a 12th-century French scholar, monk and pilgrim from Parthenay-le-Vieux in Poitou. He is most widely known today as being the suspected author of the Codex Calixtinus, an illuminated manuscript giving background information for p ...
, a French pilgrim, who recorded a number of Basque words and expressions. He wrote about Urtzi: ("and they name God as Urcia".) Since the remaining material Picaud recorded appears to be very accurate, this bears some weight.[
However, there are no legends at all related to such a god and Picaud remains the only explicit reference to date. This had led to the alternative theory that this may have been a generic term for 'sky' and that Picaud may have simply "pointed at the sky" looking for the word for God and been supplied the word for 'sky.' This explanation is to some degree supported by the unexpected ]absolutive
In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative†...
case ending ''-a'' in ''Urcia'', which neither in Proto-Basque
Proto-Basque ( eu, aitzineuskara; es, protoeuskera, protovasco; french: proto-basque), or Pre-Basque, is the reconstructed predecessor of the Basque language before the Roman conquests in the Western Pyrenees.
Background
The first linguist wh ...
or modern Basque appears on proper nouns
A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
. To date neither theory has been able to convince fully.[
]
As a personal name
With the modern resurgent interest in Basque names, Urtzi has been used as a male given name:
* Urtzi Urrutikoetxea, Basque writer
* Urtzi Iriondo, footballer
References
External links
Ortzi
entry in ''Auñamendi Encyclopedia'', by José Miguel de Barandiarán
Ortzi
entry in ''Auñamendi Encyclopedia'', by José Miguel de Barandiarán
Basque and Iberian deities
Sky and weather gods
Basque masculine given names
Masculine given names
Supernatural beings identified with Christian saints
Basque mythology
{{europe-myth-stub