Re: Albanian = Illyrian (1)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> >
> > Exactly. Both inherited and Latin /au/ give Albanian /a/ (lost

when

> > initial and unstressed). This can only mean that the name Vlorë

is

> > neither inherited nor even taken directly from Latin. It _must_

be

> a
> > loan from a language (presumably Romance or Slavic) that had /aw/
> or
> > /av/ after Albanian had changed *au to /a/, so that the the

second

> > element of the diphthong (or its consonantal reflex) was
> interpreted as
> > /v/ in Albanian.
> >
>
> Or that had changed /au/ to /av/ before Albanian changed /au/

to /a/?

> Sounds like another 'Apple City' to me. If not, do you have any
> suggestions as to what Romance or Slavic roots might have been
> borrowed here? How do explain the distrubution of the -ona place

name

> suffix?
>
> Torsten

************
First of all, it can't be in any circumstances a Slavic loan, because
rhotasism cease to function in Tosk dialect before Avars and Slavs
invasion. Compare Sl. zakon > Alb. zakoni 'law', Slavic seno > Alb.
sanë 'hey'. So, Geg Vlona, Tosk Vlora is by all means pre-Slavic
place name. Indeed, there exist some kind of romanization of this
toponym in Italian Valona, form borrowed also by Slavs. I express
also my doubt about other place name Valbona, according to Jerichek
from Lat. vallis bona 'good valley'.
/au/ > /av/ or /af/ is also one outcome in Albanian: *aus- > afsh 'to
do something with great pleasure, like shining' or in Latin loans:
Lat. laus, -dis > Alb. lavd 'praise' or Lat. causa > Alb.
kafshë 'cause, thing'.

Regards,
Konushevci