Re: [tied] alb. gji (breast)

----- Original Message -----
From: "alex_lycos" <altamix@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 10:19 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] alb. gji (breast)


> 1) could you please explain what means "zilch"?

It's an informal synonym of "zero", attested in US English since ca. 1930. No convincing etymology, perhaps a substratal word :-))

> 2) the Latin serpen (tis) has the second /e/ an short /e/. That means the PBR form should have been *sErpEns.

Nope. The change of e > E took place in stressed syllables (you've apparently saved Miguel's lecture on Romanian vowels, so please check this up to referesh your memory).

> Accepting the lost of "s" is usual for Italian and Romanian, accepting the lost of "n" is not at all usual. But let us accept it.

You'd _better_ accept it. Cf. nume, Lat. no:men

> Miguel derives it as *SerpE > *siearpe > Searpe > Sarpe, meaning that the final "E" become an "e".

See above.

> It seems more probable that the root is the *serp- like the Sanskrit
"serpati"

Skt. sarpati ({sRp-}) < *serp-e-ti

and greek "erpo" forms point out. The Latin verb "serpo" means
the same. The verb in Romanian for " to meander"= Serpui. It seems that everything can be derived with "*serp-" in Latin, Romanian, and in Albanian. I am not sure about Sanskrit and Greek if the root *serp- changes when making derivatives.

The root is indeed Indo-European *serp- 'creep, crawl', which doesn't mean that the Romanian word comes from PIE _bypassing_ Latin.

Piotr