Re: to buy

But what about Albanian? I have no idea
if there is something in Albanin which will fit into this equation.
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Albanian word for to buy is "me ble". Its etymology is very hard.
There are temptation to treat it is Latin loan from never atessted
*ablevare (Meyer). Jokl see in it prefixed form b-< mb- + root
identical with the verb laj "to pay". Tagliavini, Hamp, Çabej
connect it with Latv. blenst "to see badly, to look".
I am afraid that Jokl etymology is the rightest one, especially if
we take in account that there are in old Albanian word mbles "go-
between, match-maker" with derivates mblesë, mblesëri, etc. But, the
verb laj has also the meaning "wash" and there also another verb for
payin something me shlye "to pay off; to erase, to wipe out". So,
instead of this Balto-Slavic cognat, I dare to say that we must
search Germanic cognat, because primary form of this verb is mb-
+lenj < *lon (cf. Eng. loan from ON lan).
If we treat the language as the social phenomenon, I think that here
we have to deal with the act of taking and giving or exchanging the
goods. So, if you buy somthing or if you take something from
someone, you will be marked in someway, until you don't pay or, as
Albanian verb denote, until this mark was not washed, erased, etc.


Regards,
Abdullah Konushevci