Re: Albanian = Illyrian (1)

>
> Exactly. Both inherited and Latin /au/ give Albanian /a/ (lost when
> initial and unstressed). This can only mean that the name Vlorë is
> neither inherited nor even taken directly from Latin. It _must_ be

a

> loan from a language (presumably Romance or Slavic) that had /aw/

or

> /av/ after Albanian had changed *au to /a/, so that the the second
> element of the diphthong (or its consonantal reflex) was

interpreted as

> /v/ in Albanian.
>

Or that had changed /au/ to /av/ before Albanian changed /au/ to /a/?
Sounds like another 'Apple City' to me. If not, do you have any
suggestions as to what Romance or Slavic roots might have been
borrowed here? How do explain the distrubution of the -ona place name
suffix?

Torsten