Re: Albanian "f"

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

> 11-09-03 02:19, Abdullah Konushevci wrote:
>
>
> > Because you are so interested in Alb. /f/, I will try to answer,
> > taking not e little risk to be misunderstand.
> > If we take a look to some PIE roots, like *spend- `to make an
> > offering, perform a rite, hence to engage oneself by a ritual

act',

> > we should easy notice that Alb. verb <fal> `to release, to

relieve,

> > to pardon, to excuse, to forgive' and its intransitive form
> > <falem> `to pray, to beg, to supplicate' with many idiomatic
> > constructions, like "Të falem, o Zot" â€" I am offering myself

to you,

> > o God'; with many other derivates: <falemnderit> `Thank you',

adv.

> > <falas> `free' gratuitously', <falëmeshënder> `greetings,
> > salutation', faltore `shrine, temple', preserved in one much
> > fossilized form in place names Fandi i Madh and Fandi i Vogël,

we may

> > conclude that these words are derived from *(s)pend-. Indeed, the
> > first group: fal, falem, faltore, falje are probably derived from
> > suffixed zero-grade form *(s)pHnd-lo, developed later in *(s)pand-

lo,

> > and are deverbative of name in â€"lo stem, through regular

evolution

> > of /dl/ > /ll/, as I mention many times before, when palatal
> > liquid /ll/, being in intervocalic position, became alveolar /l/.
>
> Isn't it simply a relatively late loan from Slavic? The

substitution of

> /f/ for /xv ~ xf/ is easy and frequent: SCr. <hvala> 'gratitude,

thanks'

> (pronounced <fala> by Macedonians!), <hvala ti> 'thank you!',

<hvaliti>

> 'praise', etc.

[AK]
I agree in some context that, in some cases, we must wander about
Slavic <hvala> 'gratitude, thanks' that had contaminated Alb.
<fal> 'to give, to offer' (cf. Të falat e nuses 'presents, offerings
of the bride'), especially in words like "Të falemnderit", which
primary meaning was "I offer to you my honor" or "Falëmeshëndet" - I
pray for your health. But, in cases like: <faltore> 'shrine', "Të
falem, o Zot" - I offer myself to you, o God, I sincerely doubt that
we have to do with late loan from Slavic.
As far as I know, the only word with initial /f/, loaned from Slavic
is <fllad> 'light breeze;waft' from <hlad> 'id.', besides Greek one
<fresk> 'id.'.
Also, P. Skok was very cautious about this loan and its
interpretation of greeting "Të falemnderit" (see above) and
fall 'prediction', and suffixed form <fallxhi> 'Anbeter' are
completely wrong.

>
> > Phonetically speaking, much convincing are words: <farë> `seed,
> > sperm, semen' <*(s)por-a:-, present also in Romanian, with

derivates:

> > farëhedhës `sewer', <farëpalënë> `childless', <farës>

`seedy',

> > <farëhumbur> `scatter-brained', <for a>, <bëj fora> `scatter'

and

> > <hamshor >`stallion, stud-horse', _frushkull/vrushkull_ < *(s)

prus-k-

> > lo- `spray;, all from different grades and forms of PIE *(s)per-

`to

> > strew'.
>
> I agree about <farë> and related. *sp- > Alb. f- is credible, and
> parallelled by *sk- > h-. Of course, it's a combinative change and
> doesn't allow one to posit *p > f without the accompanying *s.
>
> Piotr