Re: [tied] A truncated snake

Alex,

The Albanian word is clearly a reflex of *sérpen- (as if from *serpenos, which however looks a little dubious as a PIE form). In addition to <gjarpër> and its transparent derivatives, there's also an old pl./coll. form, <shtërpinj> 'adders', which has developed differently because of its different stress pattern (*serpéni: > *sh(t)rpéni > shtërpínj, with epenthetic <ë>). I'd like to learn what our Romanian experts have to say about Rom. $arpe, but I think it's likely to be the same word as in Albanian, *sErpe < *sérpen which makes the most sense as a reanalysis of Lat. sérpens (oblique <serpénte-> would have undergone a completely different evolution in Romanian).

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: "alex_lycos" <altamix@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 8:51 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] alb. gji (breast)


> thank you Alvin. As Piotr already corrected, yes my dictionary says the
> same thing. I forgot the "r" here and I shouldnt do it.
> Alb: gjarpër= snake, gjarpërim=Geschlängel ( see Romanian Serpãrie, but
> Serpui for snake's way to move), Alb gjarpërushe= she-snake, but
> Romanian Serpoaicã.
>
> On another hand I see in my dictionary other forms for Albanians like:
> "gjarpinj" or "gjërpinj" which means too snake but we have an "n" like
> in Latin but forms with "n" are not to fin in Romanian for "*serpen".
>
>
> Alex
>
>
>
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