Re: [tied] Question on Albanian sy

alexandru_mg3 wrote:

> From my mind now I can give you :
> a) Rom fluier <-> Alb. fyell showing Romanian ui <-> Alb y

The etymology of <fyell> was explained in great detail by Cimochowski a
long time ago. First, it has nothing to do with <fluier>, whatever the
latter's origin. Secondly, the <y> in the Mod.Alb. form is part of a
secondary diphthong /ye/ arising in a monosyllabic word before a liquid,
not an original /y/. The fact that you don't even know _that_ much about
phonetic developments in Albanian should prevent you from discussing
Albanian etymologies. I'll post Cimochowski's etymology tomorrow (I
haven't got his article to hand).

> b) Also Alb. qytet (Latin loan) showing Lat. -iwi- > Alb. y (so iu
> or ui or iui)

This one's better, though here we have neither Lat. /ui/ nor /iu/ but
/iwi/ in <civita:t->, and the contracted syllables are both unstressed.

> (If this example is so 'reliable' I could ask you : "why so many
> different derivations and workarounds for dy?")

Don't ask me, ask those who propose complicated derivations instead of
the simplest and most economic one.

Piotr