Laia (tool)

Two-pronged type of foot-plough

Laias at the Igartubeiti Museum

The laia (Spanish: laya) is a two-pronged type of foot-plough 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.

## Etymology

[edit]

Laiariak in the Hernani region

The word is also attested as lai, without the absolutive ending[1][2] but is mainly used in the form of laia today. Other forms include lain (Oiartzun) and laixa (Eibar).[3] Beyond that the etymology is not entirely clear, but a connection with names for other forked implements in other neighbouring Romance languages such as the Béarnese word layà (a forked instrument for gathering chestnuts) seems plausible.[3]

## See also

[edit]

* Foot plough
* Loy

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Lhande, Pierre Dictionnaire Basque-Français et Français-Basque Paris 1926
2. ^ Azkue, Resurrección María de (1905) Diccionario Vasco Español Frances repr. Bilbao 1984
3. ^ a b Agud, M. & Tovar, A. Diccionario Etimológico Vasco VII Korpa-Orloi Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa (1995) ISBN 84-7907-180-X

## External links

[edit]

* Laya race in Artaxao

This tool article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template