From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 20967
Date: 2003-04-12
----- Original Message -----
From: "Abdullah Konushevci" <a_konushevci@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2003 9:34 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: albanian prefix "stër-"
> But, what about Alb. sa 'how' and Latin quod, where we have the same
modification of kwo- > sa.
<sa> 'how many/much' is a contraction of *si-a, where the first element is identical with <si> 'how' < *kWih1 (the instrumental of *kWo-/*kWi-), and the second element is probably deictic <a> from *h2au-. If you want to see what happened to *kWo-, consider *kWom > *kaN > kë 'whom'.
> Or, lets take Greek tra- in trapezium from zero grade *kwt(w)r (cf. Lat. ratio > arsye through metathesis r-a > a-r).
You mean <trapeza> from *kWtwr.-ped-ih2. No problem with that; the change *r. > ra is semi-regular in Greek.
> Do You not accept that consonant cluslter st- is not developet in
sht-,
I am not sure if I understand you double negation correctly. At any rate, any _inherited_ *st- woud have developed into <sht->, if that's what you're asking my opinion about. <st> must be of other origin.
> or do You suggest that stër- is derived from italian stra-, as
Dalmatian, Romanian, or what else.
I didn't say that. I only corrected your derivation of <katër> and what you said about the development of *kW in Albanian, without giving my opinion about the prefix.
> I know that in Persion we have çaher, mostly reduced in compound to çar (cf. çardak, çarsu, Çarsabme, besides Persembe in Turkish, etc.). It may be also Alb. intesiv prefix s- to the root tër- (cf. tërmek/em `to be nettled, to be annoyed', tërplote "1/4, vierteil', etc.).
Actually, I like your idea that <stër-> may be related to <katër>, but the <s-> does require an etymological front vowel. It could be derived from the adverb *kWetwr.s 'four times' (Skt. catuh., Lat. quater < *kWetrus with analogical vocalism), or from the secondary composition form *kWetwr.- (innovated for *kWtwr.-, cf. Gk. tetra-, Skt. catur-, Av. caþru-, etc.). In either case we could expect Proto-Albanian *c^etur- > *sëtër- > stër- with the unstressed vowel dropping out.
Piotr