Re: Albanian "th"

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

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "alex" <alxmoeller@...>
> To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2003 3:50 PM
> Subject: [tied] Albanian "th"
>
>
> > Is there found out from which actualy Albanian "th" derives?
> > As far as I could inform myself, there are some thoughts as

follow:

> > th < PIE *k ( Jokl and Pekmezi)
> > th < Latin "s"
>
> Alb. <th> (the spelling indicates a dental fricative, as in

English) derives

> primarily from Satemised *k^. At the end of roots it may reflect

*g^ or *g^H

> (the expected voiced fricative <dh> was devoiced word-finally, and

the

> voiceless sound was often generalised analogically). It may also
> occasionally reflect *d or *dH in this position (via <dh>) for

reasons that

> are a bit too complex to explain here.
>
> <th> for *s occurs in a few words where it is due to dissimilation

before

> another *s (now often lost). One well-known example is <thanj> 'I

dry'

> *sausnjo: .
>
> First and foremost, however, it continues PIE *k^.
>
> Piotr

************
Besides well-known example <thanj> 'I dry' < *sausnyo, there are also
thi 'pig' < *su: (cf. Lat. sus, Gr. hus 'id.') with regular loosing
of nominative ending in Albanian, which could be another example of
dissimilation. But, in thith 'to suck' (cf. also Slavic sisati 'to
suck') < *su:k, variant of *seuH2- we have the process of
assimilation s - s < s - k, like we have in sos < *pekW-'to burn, to
ripen', assimilated, like in Italic and Celtic languages, in kWekW-.
So, I am afraid that rather for the process of dissimilation, we have
to deal with the process of assimilation.

Konushevci