Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "alex_lycos" <altamix@...>
> To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 11:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [tied] Macedonian x Greek
>
>
>> Piotr, which should be other IE cognates for Greek 'kephalos' and
>> which is the assumed root for "kephalos"? Do the other IE cognates
>> means always "head"?
>
> English <gable> (PGmc. *gablaz, also *gebl-an- > Goth. gibla
> 'pinnacle' and *gablo:, which has come to mean 'fork' e.g. in Modern
> German) is a possible cognate. The semantics is plausible, cf. OHG
> gebal '[crown of the] head'). The root is *gHebH- (or *g^HebH-), and
> the word originally meant 'top, vertex, angular point'. The meaning
> 'head' was figurative
>
> Piotr
I was thinking of the common word of Rom. and Albanians : ceafã ( alb=
c^afë) meaning "nape"
The diphtongation in Rom. is normal since /e/ before /ã/ so the form
should have been cefã.
Since in Alb the diphtongation is presnt too, I don't know what to think
now. There are several posiblities:
- If in Alb. /e/ does not become /ea/ before /ë/ then it looks like a
loan from Romanian.
- maybe the "f" here makes me see them wrong and they do not belong to
the same root as 'kefalos". I say so because if we asume that an
affricated "c" in Rom. is from an /c/+/ie/ then the supposed form should
have been "kefa":
kefa > kiefa > c^efa > c^eafã. Phoneticaly no problem there, just the
"f" which will imply that an PIE *bh has given "f" in Rom. ; I don't
know if this is realistic, there should be verified on more words.
- this is a loanword in Romanian from Albanian under the form "kefa" and
both languages affricated independet.
Should be there other posiblities?