Re: [tied] Re: some terms for George

On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 18:51:16 +0000, Abdullah Konushevci
<a_konushevci@...> wrote:

>> No. Turkish gâvur, judging by the spelling, is from Arabic.
>
>[AK] I doubt that here we have to do indeed with semitic word
><kefar> 'village' (cf. Caphernaum) with meaning of
><peasant> 'ubeliever' (cf. pagus 'village' and paganus 'inhabitant
>of the village, ubeliever', which in Albanian derives i pëgërë, të
>pëgërët 'mess, dirt'), even there are opinions that it is from
>Persian word <gebr> 'unbeliever, christian'.

I would have assumed it's from the Arabic root jwr "to deviate, to stray,
to commit an outrage, to bear down upon, to wrong, persecute, oppress,
tyrannize, to encroach, make inroads (on another's territory)" (and, in
line with the maxim that an Arabic root means (1) what it means, (2) the
opposite, (3) an obscenity, and (4) something to do with camels, the other
meanings are: to be the neighbour of, live next door to, be adjacent, to
adjoin, be in the vicinity of, to be close to, to border on; to grant
asylum or sanctuary, to protect, to stand by s.o. to aid")

>> >- how is posible the derivation of Latin "draco" to give Albanian
>> >"dreq"?
>>
>> dreq < *draki. I don't know where the -i comes from.
>
>[AK] -i in Albanian is regular ending of masculine names in definite
>form (undefinite form: një drak, definite: draki). The plural in
>this case is formed through metaphony or Umlaut.

I know -i is one of the regular endings of the masculine definite article.
That's not the *-i I was referring to.

Alex said that Devil was "dreq" in Albanian. I checked, of course, and
indeed at http://www.foreignword.com/dictionary/Albanian/default.htm
the word is given as dreq, dreqi "diablo".

Now you're telling me it's a plural. I'm confused. Isn't "the devil"
singular? Shouldn't the plural definite form be *dreqtë?


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