27-01-04 15:13, elmeras2000 wrote:
> From an unattested language closely related to, if not identical
> with, a prestage of Albanian. The genuinely Balto-Slavic material is
> as in *c^IrnU 'black', OPruss. kirsnan. The rounded palatal
> reflecting the palatalized labiovelar gives it away. The borrowing
> occurred before the dissolution of the Balto-Slavic unity, so the
> loanword is preserved in both branches.
Interesting. Formally, there's nothing unsound about deriving BSl.
*c'(w)a:r-ka: from pre-Alb. *c'Wa:r- < *kWe:r(-snah2 or the
like), and the prehistoric location of pre-Albanian may have been
northerly enough for such loans to be possible. My only regret is that
the promising connection with Skt. z'a:rika: would have to be abandoned.
Incidentally, the unpalatalised nil grade of *kWr.s- perhaps survives
in the Carpathian hydronym Cri$/Körös (ancient Krisos), with what looks
like syllabic *r. à l'albanais. One of the three modern Cris rivers is
the Black Cris, Rom. Cri$ul Negru (the other two are called White and
Rapid). But the name may equally well reflect *k(^)r.s-o-s 'rapid,
running' (with the same treatment of *r.).
Piotr