04-01-04 16:25, Mate Kapovic wrote:
> Can somebody explain to me in detail how the PIE *s- developed into Albanian
> gy-? Is there something else attested in Old Albanian instead of this gy-
> here?
I think the sound has been palatal [g^] throughout the recorded history
of Albanian. It reflects not only *s- but a variety of other sources
(*j-, *g- before front vowels, also in Latin words, *gl- in most
dialects of Albanian). It's supposed to have been alveopalatal *z^ at
one point, the voiced counterpart of <sh> [s^], which is the other
common development of *s in Albanian. It seems that prevocalic *s
underwent voicing to *z in stressed syllables already in pre-Roman
times; more recently (in the early Middle Ages) the pair *s, *z changed
into "shibilant" *s^ and *z^. As a result, *z^ merged with the
"hardened" reflex of *j (found both in native and in Latin words); this
*z^ then developed into a palatal stop, presumably via some kind of
palatal affricate (palatal stops are rarely unaffricated anyway).
Piotr