Re: Dog

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Abdullah Konushevci"
> <a_konushevci@...> wrote:
> > Albanian <qen> `dog' as anyone may see, even in this list, is
> > treated as a loan from Latin <canis> `dog'. Today's form is
> > explained due to i-Umlaut: kani > qen. Phonetically speaking,
> > everything is looking correct. But, I wonder how, until now, no
> one
> > have seen that, if this word is Latin loan, than why didn't
> > underwent rhotacism in Tosk dialect, because we have
> > intervocalic /n/, which regularly changer in /r/, except in

Slavic

> > and New Greek loans, when this phenomenon ceased to function.
> > We agree that the word <can> `dog' exist, but I doubt that it
> exists
> > in this form. Place names, like Candavia, forced me to see its
> > primary form as <cand>, an suffixed zero-grade form *k^wn.-to,
> > deriving in Old English <hund> `dog',
>
> I'm not convinced of the vocalisation. The Proto-Germanic is
> *xundaz, which implies *k^untós. *k^wn.tós would have given
> *xwundaz, though I suppose that might have simplified to *xwundaz -
> I can't find any examples or counter-examples.
>
> until in Albanian <kand>,
> > thanks to dispalatization of palatal, followed by nasals.
>
> I'm not persuaded of the development either. Piotr gives (at
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/29908 ) the
> development
> dhjetë '10'< *Die(T&)t& < *diäcata < *dek^m.t (+ *-a:)
>
> The development k^m. > th& better explains the haplology (semi-
> haplology?) than your implicit proposal kam / kan (Geg kâm / kân?)
> does.
>
> My 24-year old notes say PIE *m. > Geg âm, ân, Tosk ë, PIE *n. >

ân,

> but I suspect the difference reflects an inaccuracy in my notes or
> possibly an error in the thesis on the development of Albanian I
> made the notes from. The development of *n. should have been
> parallel to that of *m. Alas, I was not well enough trained to

make

> a note of the author. I do remember that the author said he could
> find no find trace of PIE *s.
>
> Doubtless there will be a fuller exchange of view when Piotr
> addresses the development of the syllabic consonants. It seems to
> me that your proposal derives a Geg _qen_, whereas the Tosk would

be

> something like *thët. But a Geg _qen_ could just as well be from
> Latin! We await more expert commment.
>
> Richard.

************
Dear Richard,
equation *k^wn.-to (suffixed zero-grade form) is not mine. I have
find it in American Heritage Dictionary under the entry *k^won-,
which derives Old English <hund> 'dog'.
I hope that in the case of Albanian <qen> 'dog' this equation fits
also very good. Maybe here we have to deal with stressed syllabic
nasal, which, by all means, yilds in Alb. (g.) -ân, (t.) -ën. I doubt
that its preform should be *-en.
About Alb. <qen> `dog', we may find in Meyer's Etimologische
Wörterbuch der Albanischen Sprache (p. 222) this explanation:
"<qen>, <qën> m. `Hund'. <Qëne>, <qënezë> f. `Hündin'. <qenicë> f.
dass. Sic. Pitre. <Qêth> geg. M. `Geschur unter der Zunge als
angebliche Veranlassung der Tollwut' (vgl. Gaidoz La rege et St.
Hubert p. 66 ff.). <qeneXe> adv.'nach Hundeart, flasch'. aus. Lat
<canis>. Rum. <cane>, <caine>. Die alb. Form geht zunächst auf
umgelautetes *canis zurück."
Çabej didn't treat this word at all in his "Etymological Dictionary"
(book I), niether did it Vladimir Orel in "Albanian Etymological
Dictionary".
The lack of rhotacism is obvious in Albanian <qen>, c.f.: Lat. frenum

> (g.) frêni, (t.) frëri, Lat. molinum > (g.) mullini, (t.) mulliri,

Lat. corona > conora > (g.) kunora, (t.) kurora, Lat. consobrinus >
(g.) kushërini, (t.) kushëriri, Lat. salina > (g.) shëllinë, (t.)
shëllirë, etc. I can't find any example where latin loans in Albanian
didn't underwent rhotacism.
To conclusion that PN Candavia may be attested form, I was leading by
Milan Shufflay's work "Povijest sjevernih Arbanasa" (Arhiv za
arbanasku starinu, jezik i etnologiju, Beograd, 1925, p. 212):
"Juzhno od Polata, iza Trafandija, izmedju Draca i rijeke Mata lezala
je Hunavija `zemlja kunica' (Arb. kunavje)". Maybe Mate could help
us, but, as far as I remember the same PN exists also in Dalmatia.

Konushevci