> Any inherited word in Albanian shows the effects of
> all the old sound changes (if applicable in a given case) down to the
> Roman period. What else would you expect? Now, if you could demonstrate
> that Romanian words of substratal origin _fail_ to show some of the
> expected traces of changes datable to the Roman period, that would have
> interesting implications as regards their age. But I don't see anything
> of the kind.
>
> Piotr
If such an assumed substratum language (akin to PAlb or in relationship
with it as a, say, dialect) went through the same sound changes, then
no wonder that what has resulted in the Romanian vocabulary doesn't
reflect earlier stadia than the counterpart pieces of vocabulary in
Albanian. (I haven't studied these correspondences, plus sound changes,
but I'm skeptical of such words like balaur and mazãre as being simple
reflexes made out of Alb. bollë and modhullë. If they are though to be
seen as such, I'd expect them to be extremely old, since I don't think
that these Alb -o-'s can get so easily -a-'s in Romanian (I'd rather
expect forms such as *muzure/muzãre/muzrã (or even forms with -d-
instead of -z-, say *mudurã) and *bulã or *burã).)
George