Re: Balkan Serpents (was: alb. gji (breast))

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:

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

> > 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.

Why is the derivation being started as serpens > serpen > sErpe? My
recollection is that Classical Latin Vns is a reversion, and that
Proto-Romance always starts from V:s, c.f. the French doublet
peser 'weigh' (_inherited_) and penser 'think' (learned borrowing),
both from the frequentative pensa:re (Classical form) of
pendere 'hang'. As I see it, the derivation should start serpens >
serpe:s > serpe: > sErpe.

Richard.