Re: [tied] The Magic Mountain [was: substratum]

I start from the point that place names present must fossilized
linguistic data not only in Albanian language. It is true that such
place names exist in Albanian onomastics, as exists adjective <i
madh> < *mog-.

Konushevci
************

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

> 26-06-03 09:45, g wrote:
>
> > Thank you; I'm not sure Rum. <mare> will shine in a new
> > light, but <mogilla> and <magure> seem to be precious
> > hints with respect to other words: Rum. <moghila/movila>
> > "heap, hillock," <mãgura> "hill, mountain, peak." Yet the
> > Romanian dictionary recommends the reader to compare
> > the latter word with Alb. <magullë>. Does this one belong
> > to the same Alb. mog-/mag- group? (As for Rum. <movila>
> > or <moghila>, acc. to the same source, < Old Sl. <mogyla>.)
>
> The derivation of <madh> from *meg^h2- (with either an o-grade or

a

> secondary weak grade, *m&g^h2-) rules out any connection with

<magullë>

> and <mãgura>, since these show a non-Satem velar. I think a very

early

> Slavic loan must be assumed here, since *mogyla (phonetically
> *[magu:la:] at the time of the initial Slavic expansion) is a

common

> Slavic word meaning 'kurgan, burial mound'; the retention of /g/

between

> vowels in Albanian would be hard to explain in an inherited word

without

> a transparent morphological base. Romanian <moghila ~ movila> is

of

> course a post-rhotacism borrowing from a later Slavic source,

while

> Polish toponymic <Magura> (in the southern highlands) is a loan

repaid

> to us by Daco-Romanian immigrants.
>
> As regards its etymology, the word *mogyla is as enigmatic as a

steppe

> kurgan itself. An extremely speculative (and therefore suspect)

Iranian

> etymology has been proposed (Sarmatian *magu-ula- 'magic hill'),

from

> *magHu- as in OP magus^ 'magus', Eng. <may, might>, Slavic *mog-

ti 'be

> able to', similar but unrelated to *meg^h2-. I have a vague

recollection

> of its having been discussed on Cybalist two or three years ago.
>
> Piotr