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Translation of 'regacho'

Bert45

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2003, 2014, 2016, 2016, 2018, 2019
Google Maps shows the Roman bridge near Cirauqui crossing the "Regacho de Iguste". Google Translate doesn't recognise 'regacho', and neither does my small Spanish-English dictionary. It is recognised by GT as the Galician word meaning 'stream'. GT doesn't have Navarrese (if there is such a language). Basque has co-official status in the Basque speaking areas of northern Navarre, but GT does not recognise the word in Basque. Turismodenavarra.com calls it the Regacho de Iguste too. I'm just curious as to why GM would user a word that appears to be Galician for a stream so far from Galicia.
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Bert45,

Whatever terms describe it that Cirauqui Roman bridge is unforgetable.
I remember following a curved tree-lined path to climb/crawl across

leaving Cirauqui.jpg

the precarious "steps' of irregular stone on the Roman "bridge" in January 2008. Nerves wracked it was vital to use poles and hope for balance!


towards Lorca.jpg

Happily nearer Lorca the path was easier/broader following antique cart routes and crossing this (restored) Roman bridge. What a day!
 
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I'm just curious as to why GM would user a word that appears to be Galician for a stream so far from Galicia.

Regacho is a traditional denomination that is given or had been given to arroyos (EN: stream, creek, brook) in a large territory of the Iberian Peninsula that reaches from Cinco Villas in Aragon and the north of Navarra to Galicia. Etymology: uncertain.

In La Rioja, regacho is used in the same way as the standard Spanish word arroyo. In Navarra and the Basque Country, regacho often appears as a generic component, hence regacho de Iguste.

I don't know why the word is not in the RAE dictionary.

Source: https://an.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regacho
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
For further reading: An article published in the Revista de Filologia Española which poses and answers, among other questions, the following question: Arroyo - what name is given in this village (of the study) to a small stream that flows into a larger stream when non-standard Spanish is used? Answer: Many different words instead of arroyo, and among them are regato and regacho. However, while regato can be found in numerous places, it is not found in Navarra, Rioja, and Aragon where words of the same etymology as regato abound, namely regacho, regachuelo, regajo, and reajo.

So the answer to the question in the first post is: Google Maps uses Regacho de Iguste because that is what the locals call it in their local version of Spanish. And if asked they will probably say that it is what the stream was called by our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents and we know what it means.

And now that the question is answered we can proceed to the next phase: Funny translations I've seen. :cool:

Source: Las denominaciones correspondientes a las lexías de la lengua estándar arroyo, torrentera, manantial y terreno pantanoso.
 
For some reason, the Romance languages have multiplied various cognates and diminutives of words meaning river or stream, French is similar to the Spanish and the other Iberian languages in this respect, but it does make it hard to determine their origin, though in this case it appears to be of Aragónes provenance, having been imported into the Navarra and La Rioja I would *guess* as a loan word. The etymology of it anyway is just more guesswork. How the same word got into the Gallego is beyond me !!
 
Attentive readers have no doubt noticed already that the link above leads to part II which does not deal with words for arroyo such as regato and regacho. This is dealt with in part I. Here is the link: Las denominaciones correspondientes a las lexías de la lengua estándar arroyo, torrentera, manantial y terreno pantanoso (I)
 
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I had several reasons for embarking on the way to Santiago. A key moment happened somewhere south of Tours when we walked past a still well preserved beautiful small Romanesque church in a field which, as I learnt, was used as a barn for agricultural purposes by the proprietor. How is this possible, I asked my companions in astonishment. Oh well, you know, churches were secularised during the French Revolution, was the answer.

Initially, I had no idea of the many small patrimony treasures to the right and left of my path, a testimony of our shared cultural-religious heritage. And I had no idea that it would get a lot worse in Spain. I say "worse" because I now know that there is no way that I could ever see and experience it all, there is so much of it in Spain in particular. I also had no idea of the concept of la España vacia, of the extent of depopulation of the rural areas of Spain. What I saw, learnt, experienced about past and present Spain on my walk to Santiago is something I treasure.

So @Bert45 did it again 😇: the question made me go down a rabbit hole and not only linguistically. Iguste is the name of a hill/mountain, there are several depopulated villages in the area, and one of them is Soracoiz/Sorakoitz and it has an old church (which, btw, is presumably older than the music in the video). Merely 3 km to the north of Cirauqui. And there is of course a camino that leads to it ... the church was owned by various noble owners, and eventually the then prince of Viana granted the tributes of this church to a pilgrim hospital in Puente la Reina, ie this income helped to house and feed poor people and pilgrims in those days.

Alto de Iguste.jpg
 
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Not just secularised during the Revolution, but there are also some that were ripped apart by Protestant iconoclasts during France's internal religious wars, and never recovered. Though the likelier explanation is the Revolution, particularly so close to Tours.
 
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There's more. About midway between Lorca and Cirauqui, in the hills there's the Ermita de San Ciriaco:
Near Carretera Garisoain - Alloz, Irurre
Location: geo:42.70353,-1.92142?z=21
It looks spectacular. Yes, there is no shortage of obscure rabbitholes to go down, even near the ant-trail of the Camino Francés.
 
For further reading: An article published in the Revista de Filologia Española which poses and answers, among other questions, the following question: Arroyo - what name is given in this village (of the study) to a small stream that flows into a larger stream when non-standard Spanish is used? Answer: Many different words instead of arroyo, and among them are regato and regacho. However, while regato can be found in numerous places, it is not found in Navarra, Rioja, and Aragon where words of the same etymology as regato abound, namely regacho, regachuelo, regajo, and reajo.

So the answer to the question in the first post is: Google Maps uses Regacho de Iguste because that is what the locals call it in their local version of Spanish. And if asked they will probably say that it is what the stream was called by our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents and we know what it means.

And now that the question is answered we can proceed to the next phase: Funny translations I've seen. :cool:

Source: Las denominaciones correspondientes a las lexías de la lengua estándar arroyo, torrentera, manantial y terreno pantanoso.
I read on one of the Camino websites that in Gallego , there are 70 different words for "rain",,,???
Just sayin.....
 
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Regarding rain, I love the Basque word used around San Sebastian for drizzly, misty rain. Something like "shemeereeji"
 
I always say "regato" for a small stream. I think that "regacho" has the Basque diminutive "cho" written in the Spanish way. Basque is "txu".
It's Aragonés, derived from an original Latin -atio/-atium (example peregrinatio : pilgrimage).

That this Latin suffix can be pronounced similarly in its Romance versions in several languages is not surprising.
 
It's Aragonés, derived from an original Latin -atio/-atium (example peregrinatio : pilgrimage).

That this Latin suffix can be pronounced similarly in its Romance versions in several languages is not surprising.
But, Basque diminutive is txu (chu) like Santutxu (Santito) in Bilbao. In the Regacho case fits the diminutive because is a small stream. Is Latin "atio" diminutive?.
Basque was spoken in Aragón Pyrenees.
 
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The Latin suffix is indicative of an ongoing action, so that its combination with a root meaning river or stream would mean something like "running water", or lively stream - - possibly by semantic opposition to some more tranquil ones.

The French word with that particular meaning is "rigole".

And as suggested, words formed from Late Latin forms can very easily be similar in multiple Iberian languages, particularly given that Latin continued as a living language that some Spaniards spoke as their mother tongue into the 9th Century.
 
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Wikipedia has an Aragonese webpage for regacho. It has an etymology going back to Latin regare and Google Translate gives the English translation as irrigate (note the similarity between rega and riga). Also, the Spanish verb regar has the meanings to irrigate and to water.

So, a small stream put to use for irrigation?
 
Maybe, but the reason why the etymology is speculative is that in the origin of its root, the word has multiple possible provenances.

In that various Latin and Gaulish/"Celtic" words meaning slightly different things have led into multiple Romance language words used variously and locally for some occasionally quite subtle differences in meaning and purpose.

The Gaulish/"Celtic" words for small or large watercourses were IIRC not dissimilar to the Latin.

There are simply too many plausible theories of origin for this particular word to be able to establish any of them as being the likeliest, although I do remain fairly confident in my comments about the Late Latin suffix.
 
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I LOVE it! My translator gives it in english as "Give me a hug of liking"...
Fantastic! Sounds like we have a perfect opportunity to start a new tradition of --

When you cross that bridge you can't leave it until you get a "hug of liking" on it. Once you receive a hug you can proceed to the other side.😻

Let's do this folks.
 
Regarding rain, I love the Basque word used around San Sebastian for drizzly, misty rain. Something like "shemeereeji"
Teach them SCOTS as in "DREICH " WHICH means drizzly, mist, cold, miserable and so on :)
samarkand.
 
Wikipedia has an Aragonese webpage for regacho. It has an etymology going back to Latin regare and Google Translate gives the English translation as irrigate (note the similarity between rega and riga). Also, the Spanish verb regar has the meanings to irrigate and to water.

So, a small stream put to use for irrigation?
Reading that webpage I now know that a small stream in Basque is Errekatxo. Errekatxo is the diminutive of Erreka (stream). "Tx" is Spanish "ch". I think that the relation between Errekacho and Regacho is clear. Regacho is an evolution from Basque in my opinion.
 
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