From: tgpedersen
Message: 20394
Date: 2003-03-27
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Abdullah Konushevci"atessted
> <akonushevci@...> wrote:
> > But what about Albanian? I have no idea
> > if there is something in Albanin which will fit into this
> equation.
> > ************
> > Albanian word for to buy is "me ble". Its etymology is very hard.
> > There are temptation to treat it is Latin loan from never
> > *ablevare (Meyer). Jokl see in it prefixed form b-< mb- + rootif
> > 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
> > we take in account that there are in old Albanian word mbles "go-as
> > 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,
> Albanian verb denote, until this mark was not washed, erased, etc.Interesting, since Marcel Mauss "Essai sur le don" has the same idea
> [I think that Slavic kupiti "to buy" and kupati "to wash" are
> derived as Albanian blej "to buy" < mb- + laj "to wash", from the
> same root.]
> >