Re: Macedonian x Greek

From: Abdullah Konushevci
Message: 20571
Date: 2003-03-31

I was thinking of the common word of Rom. and Albanians : ceafã (
alb=
> c^afë) meaning "nape"
> The diphtongation in Rom. is normal since /e/ before /ã/ so the
form
> should have been cefã.
> Since in Alb the diphtongation is presnt too, I don't know what to
think
> now. There are several posiblities:
> - If in Alb. /e/ does not become /ea/ before /ë/ then it looks
like a
> loan from Romanian.
> - maybe the "f" here makes me see them wrong and they do not
belong to
> the same root as 'kefalos". I say so because if we asume that an
> affricated "c" in Rom. is from an /c/+/ie/ then the supposed form
should
> have been "kefa":
> kefa > kiefa > c^efa > c^eafã. Phoneticaly no problem there, just
the
> "f" which will imply that an PIE *bh has given "f" in Rom. ; I
don't
> know if this is realistic, there should be verified on more words.
> - this is a loanword in Romanian from Albanian under the
form "kefa" and
> both languages affricated independet.
>
> Should be there other posiblities?

************
About Rom. ceafa 'neck, occiput' Meyer had thinking that is an
Albanian loanword (EWAS, p.219). There are opinions that it could be
borrowed from Turkish kafa 'occipud, head' (Huld, 106) and so on.
To my view, the most reasonable explanation was given by Hamp
*kepHa, to Lat. caput 'head', because the substitution Alb. q- < PIE
*k- is regular and normal in Albanian. It could be derived also only
from cluster kl- (cf. i qartë < Lat. clarus, qaj 'to cry, to weep' <
Lat. clamare).
If the Rom. word ceafa is borrowed one, then it preserves much
oldest form.

Konushevci