[tied] Re: Nominative Loss. A strengthened theory?

From: Abdullah Konushevci
Message: 32316
Date: 2004-04-26

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "elmeras2000" <jer@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, enlil@... wrote:
>
> There is no reflex of *tosyo in any language that retains the
> alternation. Greek has abolished the alternation so we have
> only /ho/ and /to-/ as far as can be seen through the noise of
later
> contraction (the gen. is toû). But Latin istum, istud forms the
gen.
> isti:us which must be the same ending as in eiius. Gothic and the
> other Germanic languages agree on having e.g. thana, thata but gen.
> this. And Old Prussian combines stan, sta with gen. stessei,
> steisse, stesse, steisei with -e- as one of the few stable points
of
> the spelling. The gen. of Slavic tU is togo and helps little, that
> of Lith. tàs is to~, the old ablative. The Albanian possessive
> pronouns are inflected with accent on a preceding article, and in
> the gen.masc. we have ti-m, ti-t, ti-në, ti-j (the structure is
seen
> in 2sg acc. tën-d, Geg tân); I see no way this could be *tosyo,
> while *tesyo looks fine.
>
> Jens
************
Dear Jens,
The last thing I wish to do is to refute your attitude according the
Albanian possessive pronouns, but, having a deep consideration about
your work and figure, I like to stress out that in this case, you are
wrong, because in Alb. possessive pronouns, accent is not on the
preceding article, for t- is, indeed, the definite article <të>,
merged with true possessive pronouns <im> 'mine' (tim < të + im),
<yt> 'your' (tit < të + yt), <ynë> 'our' (tinë < të + ynë): Buzuku
has zotynë 'our God' and <ynëzot> 'id.', besides acc. <tënzonë> 'the
our God' (cf. <âmbël> 'sweet', but <tambël> 'sour milk', probable
from merger with definite article të + âmbël.).
Nevertheless, I agree completely with your explanation of the Alb.
possessive pronoun <jonë> 'our' as a compound of *saH2 + nas, even I
doubt that we have much more to deal with possessive form *n.s and
thanks to this explanation, I succeed to explain all other Albanian
demonstrative pronouns, as ky/kjo (also këjo) 'this', ai/ajo 'he,
she', taking into account that *so is used for masculine form and
*saH2 for feminine one and based in your rule that PIE sibilant /*s/
yields also in Palb /j/.
Now, I have a question: What do you think, does Tosk form <tën-d>,
Geg <tân> from PIE *tom > ton or, maybe *ten have had this secondary
stop /d/ before the rhotacism start to function or after it cease.

Regards,
Konushevci