Albanian (1)

1. The development of PIE dorsal stops

Distributional evidence suggests that the phonological status of the PIE
{*k^, *g^, *g^H} series was "unmarked" -- in other words, that they were
"plain" (velar) rather than palatal dorsals. The relative rarity of {*k,
*g, *gH} and their sporadically exhibited *a-colouring influence on
adjacent *e imply a uvular place of articulation. We can therefore
propose the following iterpretation of the three dorsal series:

*k^ *kW *k
/k/ /kW/ /k_/

The Satem shift consisted in the unconditional fronting of the *k^
series, i.e. (in phonetic terms)

*k > *k'

and of the uvular series

*k_ > *k

producing a new system:

*k' *k *kW

Subsequently, the new *k and *kW series merged in most of the Satem
groups. Albanian, exceptionally, reflects the contrast before front
vowels, which shows that the delabialisation of the *kW series occurred
later than the Satem shift. Since Albanian shows no evidence of contrast
between the "voiced" and "voiced aspirated" rows of stops, we can assume
that they merged early, and that the pre-Albanian system of dorsals was
as follows:

*k' *k *kW
*g' *g *gW

In Albanian, the place-of-articulation contrast was neutralised before
most consonants. Before liquids and nasals all the three series merged
into *k and *g (the combinative changes of the resulting clusters will
be discussed separately). Before stops all of them disappeared before
the time of the first Latin borrowings in Albanian:

*k't, *kt, *kWt > *kt > t

There is no contrast after *s either. We have uniform *sk > Mod.Alb. x
(spelt <h>), presumably via *sx.

In originally prevocalic positions, the Modern Albanian reflexes of *k'
and *g' are /T/ (<th>) and /D/ ~ /d/ (<dh> or <d>). Apart from special
environments, *k and *g are generally reflected as velar /k/ and /g/
before back vowels, and as palatal /k'/ (<q>) and /g'/ (<gj>) before
front vowels. Before back vowels *kW and *gW have merged with *k and *g,
but before PIE front vowels they give Mod.Alb. /s/ and /z/.

Proto-Albanian loans in Romanian give us some indication of the
pronunciation of the reflexes of *k' and *g' at the time of the
borrowing: their Modern Romanian reflexes are /c/ ~ /s/ and /z/ (~
dialectal /3/). Palatalised *kW is reflected as Romanian /c^/. We can
therefore tentatively assume the following intermediate stages:

*k' > *c > T
*g' > *3 > D (> d in some instances)
*kW /+ > *c^ > s
*gW /+ > *3^ > z

where "/+" means 'in palatalising contexts'.

At an early date, the sequences *k'w and *g'w merged with palatalised
*kW and *gW (they give the same Modern Albanian reflexes and behave in
the same way in Romanian borrowings from Proto-Albanian. If
reconstructed *c^ and *3^ owe their contrast with *c' and *3' to
cooccurrence of labialisation and palatality in the original
combination, the following development can be posited:

A B C D E

*k' > *c' > *c > *T > T
*g' > *3' > *3 > *D > D ~ d
*k'w > *c'W > *c^ > *c > s
*kW /+ > *c'W (the rest as above)
*g'w > *3'W > *3^ > *3 > z
*gW /+ > *3'W (the rest as above)

Let's label stage A "pre-Albanian", stage B "Early Proto-Albanian",
stage C "Late Proto-Albanian" (approximately the time of close
interaction between Proto-Albanian and Balkan Latin) and stage D "Old
Albanian" (later than the first Slavic loans in Albanian). Stage E
represents the Modern Albanian state of affairs.

The word-initial contrast between <d> /d/ and <dh> /D/, especially in
word-initial positions, is taken by some to reflect *g^H (e.g. dorë
'hand' < *g^He:sr-) *vs. *g^ (e.g. dhëmb 'tooth' < *g^ombH-). However,
there are counterexamples to such a "rule"; there is moreover the same
kind of capricious variation as regards reflexes of PIE *d(H)-, and
sometimes both variants can be found in the same root. Cimochowski
attributed the modern contrast to randomly lexicalised Old Albanian
sandhi variation (e.g. *D after a vowel or *r, *d after a nasal); no
better solution has been offered so far. Intervocalic affricates (stage
C) seem to have been exempt from the loss of intervocalic voiced stops
(to be described later). In this position, and after /r/, we always find
fricative /D/ in Modern Albanian.

Some examples:

*k^onídah2 > *canída: > Geg thëni:, Tosk thër(r)ijë
*smek^ru 'beard > mjekër 'chin, beard' (dispalatalisation before *r)
*k^we:r(h2)ah2 (or sim.) > *c^o:ra > sorrë 'crow'
*h3ok^tó: (+ *-t-a:) > *a(k)tö:ta > tetë '8' (loss before another stop)
*g^ombHos > *3amb- > Geg dhâmb, Tosk dhëmb 'tooth'
*bHr.h2g^o- > *bar3- > bardh 'white'
*g^Heimon- > Geg dimën, Tosk dimër
*h2org^Hi- > *är3i- > (h)erdhe 'testicle'
*pekWo: > pjek 'bake, roast'
*penkWe (+ *-a:) > *penc^a > pesë, dial. pêsë (palatalisation)
*gWHermo- > *3^iärm- > zjarm (palatalisation)
*dHegWHo: > *diäg- > dieg 'burn'
*dHogWHejo: (caus.) > (*en- +) *dä3^i > ndez 'set on fire' (palat.)