Re: [tied] barba, farfeche, bãiat

On Sun, 01 Sep 2002 16:59:27 -0000, "mbikqyres" <a96_aeu@...> wrote:

>> >It might be interesting to know which form is older, Tosk "vjetër"
>> >or Geg "vjetën".
>>
>> Gheg, obviously. Intervocalic -n- (whether inherited or borrowed,
>as in this
>> case), becomes -r- in Tosk, while Gheg maintains old -n-.
>
>[Alvin] Then shouldn´t you be proving the relation of
>Albanian "vjetën" to Latin instead of "vjetruar" ?
>
>I was refering this one of your statements:
>
>"That Albanian has retained the PIE word *wet(es)- "year" is true,
>but it doesn't mean that vjetruar (< *wetra:nV) can't be from Latin.
>In fact it *must* be, because Albanian native words do not have the
>development /s/ > /r/ typical of Latin (*wetesa:nos > vetera:nus)."

Sorry, I misread the question. I thought it was about Tosk vjetruar vs. Gheg
vjetruan. Vjetër/vjetën "old" is a different word. I'm no expert in Albanian
etymology, but judging by the fact that Pokorny in his IE etym. dict. under the
root *wet- gives only the following Albanian cognates:

vit, pl. vjet "year"
parvjet "two years ago"
vjetë "calf"
vitsh "calf" (*weteso-),

I take it that vjetër is considered to be a borrowing from Latin vetus, veteris.
In that case, the Gheg form is analogical, a hypercorrection influenced by Tosk
vjetër. Unlike Latin and Germanic, there is no *s (> *z) > r rhotacism in the
history of Albanian.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...