The laia ( es, laya) is a two-pronged type of
foot-plough
The foot plough is a type of plough used like a spade with the foot in order to cultivate the ground.
New Zealand
Before the widespread use of metal farm tools from Europe, the Māori people used the , a version of the foot plough made entirely ...
used in the
Basque Country. Aside from being a farming implement, it is also used in
laia racing. The people using a laia are referred to as ''laiariak'' in
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
.
Etymology
The word is also attested as ''lai'', without the
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– ...
ending[ Lhande, Pierre ''Dictionnaire Basque-Français et Français-Basque'' ]Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
1926[ Azkue, Resurrección María de (1905) ''Diccionario Vasco Español Frances'' repr. ]Bilbao
)
, motto =
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1984 but is mainly used in the form of ''laia'' today. Other forms include ''lain'' (
Oiartzun) and ''laixa'' (
Eibar
Eibar ( eu, Eibar, es, Éibar) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country of Spain. It is the head town of Debabarrena, one of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Gipuzkoa.
Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat ...
).
[Agud, M. & Tovar, A. ''Diccionario Etimológico Vasco VII Korpa-Orloi'' Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa (1995) ] Beyond that the etymology is not entirely clear, but a connection with names for other forked implements in other neighbouring
Romance language
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European languages, I ...
s such as the
Béarnese word ''layà'' (a forked instrument for gathering chestnuts) seems plausible.
[
]
See also
*Foot plough
The foot plough is a type of plough used like a spade with the foot in order to cultivate the ground.
New Zealand
Before the widespread use of metal farm tools from Europe, the Māori people used the , a version of the foot plough made entirely o ...
* Loy
References
External links
Laya race in Artaxao
Farming tools
Basque culture
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