Sobre el origen latino-románico de riojano-navarro yasa y vasco jasa

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to re-examine the origin of the word yasa, jasa, chaz ‘torrent’, ‘freshet’, ‘swell’ well attested in the Medieval and Modern toponymy as in the nowadays language of wide regions of La Rioja, Navarra and Aragón, whose relationship with the Basque jasa ‘heavy rain’, couldn’t be denied. Contrarily to another study of this word published in this review (F. González Bachiller, “Navarro y riojano yasa, vasco jasa: ¿paleoeuropeo *isa / *aisa?”, FLV, 94, 2003, pp. 469-482), we propose an entirely Romance origin from lat. *iacium ‘bed’, ‘rest place’. Several data proceeding from Catalonia, Aragón and Gascogne seem to prove the hypothesis. The Phonetic evolution of the word excludes an authochton origin in Aragón, Navarra and La Rioja: it would be preferable to consider it as a borrowing. At the end, the Basque term jasa could also have had the same Romanic source although the exact origin of this borrowing cannot be precised with accuracy.