Dear Luisma,

The usual Basque word for salt is gatz, and this may have been *kas in Iberian.

This latter form may be found in the Roman era place-name, Castulo (Cortijos de S Eufemia y de Yangues), which could be *kas-tulo "salt pit".

Another word for "salt" recorded in De Kerexeta is lona.

Does this appear in any place-names?

It quite possibly does.

There is Longuntica (Aguilas, west of Cartagena). This could be either *lon-gonte-ika "place of the southern salt(pan)" or *lon-gun-tigi "place of the place of the salt" (-tigi having been added subsequently). Neither is wholly satisfactory.

The second is problematic, because Basque -tegi "place of" usually appears as -tigi in this meridional region - Alostigi, Astigi, Artigi, Cantigi, Lastigi, Olontigi, Saltigi, Sosontigi.

However, this might have been corrupted to -tika. A more certain example of -tika is Malateca (Marateca, Portugal), which seems to be *mala-tigi "place of the slope".

Then there is Pailontion (Beloncio, Asturias).

Now, this is obviously the old name of the River Pilona, on which the place stands.

The name may be *pai-lon-di "river of the place of salt".

pai is the same as Basque i-bai "river" (Iberian initial b often becomes p in the North-West).

The lon-di part is most interesting, because it resembles Londinium, the Roman name for London. Could this have been *lon-di "place where salt was collected", back in the Bronze Age?

Does *lon appear anywhere else in Britain?

Yes, it does.

There are the two Rivers Lune, one in Lancashire, the other in North Yorkshire (or what used to be North Yorkshire before the 1973 boundary changes). These were Lon 1160 ands Lon 1235, respectively.

And there is also Loch Long in Scotland, which may be the Longus of Ptolemy.

Aulestia mentions three Basque toponyms which may contain this stem: Longarai, Longarte and Longida.

With best wishes,

Angus J Huck