Bizkaiko jauntxoen inguruko herri literaturaz: Plentziako 1603ko hiru esaera zahar eta "Refranes y Sentencias"-en jatorria, eta proposamen bat Arrasateko erreketaren kantuez

Abstract

This paper presents the discovery of three old proverbs (1603) written in Basque. We found them in a coat-of-arms in Plentzia (Biscay) and we have analyzed them from a linguistic and historical point of view. Two of those proverbs appear in the collection Refranes y sentencias (1596), which is a remarkable fact in so far as it adds a new argument which supports Lakarra ́s (1996) proposition about the origin of this anonymous proverb compilation (he proposed northwest Biscay as the most plausible origin). In addition, as regards some features of the Basque dialect of this area, we contend that some parts of the songs about the burning of Arrasate were also composed in northwest Biscay; more precisely, around the tower house of Butroe (Gatika). For that purpose, we have augmented those linguistic considerations with historical data.