Re: Possible connection between Albanian "det" and Ancient Greek "th

On 2014-02-11 14:29, tigeradolf@... wrote:

> Hello everyone, I noticed a possible relation between the 2 words
> leading to a common primitive source.
> The accepted etymology for Albanian "det" is:
> Shortening of dialectal dēt (South Gheg), from archaic dejt (Arbëreshë),
> from Proto-Albanian *deubeta, from pre-Albanian *dʰéubetos, enlargement
> of Proto-Indo-European *dʰeubos ‘deep’.

Correct the root shape to *dHeubH-. Germanic *p is in all likelihood due
to Kluge's Law, and isn't a reflex of *b.

> This requires a pre-Albanian
> source and a semantic shift from 'sea' to 'deep'.

No, it would require a shift from 'deep' to 'sea', which is common
enough (even in English, "the deep" may mean the ocean)

> At the same time Ancient Greek -ss- tends to derive from -tt- so thalassa
> <- *thalatta (tessares <- *tettares).

But the -tt-/-ss- (no asterisk needed) in the Greek numeral '4' comes
from *-tw-, while the likely source of the -tt-/-ss- in the 'sea' word
is *-kj- (cf. the "Macedonian" gloss dalánkHan [= tHálassa]).

Piotr