Re: alb.

From: Abdullah Konushevci
Message: 45466
Date: 2006-07-22

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Alvin Ekmekciu" <a96_aeu@...> wrote:
>
> Hello !
>
> Is there any etymology for Albanian <tru>, brain ?
>
> Alvin
************
Alb. <tru> ‘brain’ is left without any further explanation about its
etymology in “Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Albanesischen Sprache”
(1891) by Gustav Meyer, who notes that best form is <truja> and
<truri>, Gheg <trû>, <trûja>, plural <trutë> ‘brains’. He has
mentioned also Kavalioti’s usage for ‘marrow’ and De Rada’s usage for
‘mind’. (pp. 438.).
I think that Alb. <trûni/truri> is originally a n-stem noun, like
<drûni/druri> ‘tree’ with collective form <truja>, like <druja> from
*druwa:.
Being a taboo word, it has no common form in different IE languages
(cf. Lat. cerebrum, Greek to mialo, ho enkephalos, Slavic mozak,
English brain, German Hirn etc.).
Albanian form <tru> has many compounds: tru-hollë ‘very smart;
literally with thin brain’, <tru-trashë> ‘very stupid; literally with
fat brain’, <tru-tharë> ‘lame-brained; literally with dried brain’,
<tru-rrjedhur> ‘idiot, senile; literally with flowed brain’,
<tru-dalë> ‘brainless/stupid’ etc. Even more, in accordance with word
<mendje> ‘mind’, <tru-femër> ‘very creative; literally with female
brain’ and <tru-mashkull> ‘very ignorant; literally with male brain’.
Etymologically speaking, Albanian <tru> ‘brain’ is hard to be seen as
a simple word. I think it’s from t-ru, where t- is a prefix like in:
t-eh, t-ah, t-rim, t-ban etc. So, -ru is a bound morpheme and I guess
that it could be from suffixed zero-grade form *r.H1-nu of the root
*re:(i)- ‘to reason, count’ or from zero-grade form *ruH- of the root
*reuH- 'to smash, knock down': Norvegian rugga 'coverlet', cf. cerebrum.

Any help?

Konushevci