Zë (Gheg zâ; Gheg nasality is etymological
here) is usually taken to be related to Slavic *zvonU (< *g^Hwon-o-) 'ringing
sound, bell' and *zvo~kU (< *g^Hwon-ko-) 'sound'.
The etymology of Zeus is so well known and
so clear (< PIE *dje:us 'Sky God' -- in fact, it's one of the best-evidenced
Indo-European words) that any new attempts to "explain" it can only be
undertaken by an undaunted amateur who knows nothing about etymology but
believes in his ability to reinvent linguistics from scratch. By Zeus, Alvin,
you could at least have checked what is already known about the word -- any good
dictionary will tell you that! I can't check the etymology of <zot> at the
moment, but since Albanian <z> may derive from *dj-, I'd risk the
tentative guess that <zot> is a reflex of the contracted vocative
*djeu-atta 'Djeus-father' (cf. Albanian at 'father'). I'll try to verify this by
tomorrow. Anyway, even if the names Zot an Zeus are related, it's a "sisterhood"
relation -- they derive from the same PIE root.
Comparing words from different languages at
random, just because they seem to sound similar, is not serious etymology. You
claim a very special position for Albanian -- as the most ancient language
of the Balkans and the source of culturally important loanwords in all the
neighbouring languages. I'm afraid nobody except extreme "Albanocentrists" can
take this claim seriously.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 1:26 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Albanian connection
I might even speculate that "Zeus" has do whith the
"voice" the thunder
brings "Zëu" (Voice, in Albania).
"Zëu, zë, ze, za,
zo" = "voice"
In meantime:
"zë, ze, za, zo" stand even for "to catch", as
it would be the case "caught
by the thunder !"= "zë
rrufeja!"