Re: Albanian (1)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tolgs001" <george.st@...> wrote:

> >The key point is that /gW/ is *not* the same as /gw/. In the
> >former, velarity and labiality (probably lip-rounding) are
> >simultaneous, in the second they are sequential. The example
> >that comes to mind is *gwistis > gjisht 'finger'.
>
> I don't know how gji- does sound like in Albanian, but even
> if it were to be pronounced [g+ji], i.e. only with a rather
> velar-like [g], without the involvement of considerable apical
> and post-apical areas, this Albanian word really evokes its
> Romanian colloquial and regional counterpart de$t (the con-
> tracted form of deget). Esp. when I take into consideration
> the Transylvanian pronunciation thereof, where [d] => [g'].
> And this one is almost the same as its phon. counterparts in
> Slovakian and Hungarian. (A coincidence or not: it's the
> same DR subdialectal where the rhotacism correspondences
> [l]->[r] and [n]<->[r] are the most frequent.)

Sorry, I misremembered the spelling. It's <gisht>, not <gjisht>, or
at least, the former wasn't challenged. I don;t klnow what that
implies for the pronunication.

Richard.