Re: to buy-revised

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Abdullah Konushevci"
> <akonushevci@...> wrote:
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Abdullah Konushevci"
> > <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
> 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.

> > [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.]
> > >
>
> Interesting, since Marcel Mauss "Essai sur le don" has the same

idea

> about buying, and I think it was Benveniste who wrote that the

early

> sense of the PGerm. cognate of 'buy' was to "buy free from

slavery".

> Thus, you're marked until you fulfill your obligation.
>
> And BTW what is the evidence Latin 'caupo' (cf. Old (?)
> German 'kaupo' "merchant") is native Latin and not a
> borrowed "colonial" word?
>
> Torsten

************
I think that diphtong au derives, as P. Skok noticed it, in Slavic
ov or av (cf. lovor, javorika < Lat. laurus). So niether
Latin 'caupo', nor German 'kaupo' couldn't gives Slavic kupiti.
The meaning of washing is preserved in religious expression:
Iskupiti grehove "to wash 'to pay' the sins".

Konushevci