--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
>If Slavic /o/ was still /a/, then Slavic *stapa:nU could
>very well yield Rom. *stapanu > stãpân. There is no
>problem. Since the word is attested in Bulgarian and
>Serbian, and not in Latin, it stands to reason that the
>direction of borrowing was Slavic > Romanian.
Your argument is not sufficient to prove the borrowing direction.
Why?
Because : is this word Rom. *stapanu > stãpân attested in any other
Slavic Language but the South Slavic?
As I know, it isn't. So is not a Slavic Inherited word.
And not only that is not an inherited word but the loan moment in
South Slavic appeared to be AFTER the split of Slavic languages so
just recently (based on the same argument that the other Slavic
languages don't have this word).
Now the question is the following:
From where the South Slavic borrowed this word?
From Latin from sure not.
So it can be from :
1. an Ancient Balkan language (pre-/proto- Albanian?)
2. Greek?
3. other source (Iranian etc...)?
I will come back with more details on these hypothesis.
Best Regards,
Marius