alexandru_mg3 wrote:
> Jens, sorry here, but: PIE *sw > PAlb. *w
> (or PIE *s/w > PAlb. zero)
>
> I don't know any example of PIE *sw > Alb. d. There isn't such a
> rule in Albanian. Could you give us an example here?
>
Excuse the self-quotation:
-----
"Combinations of *s with other phonemes have produced some really
bizarre results. Initial *sw- gives Mod.Alb. d-, as in *sworgH-eje- >
dergjem 'lie ill' (middle voice) and *s(h2)wel-jo- (or the like) > diell
'sun'. The development is puzzling and the intermediate stages are
difficult to reconstruct. The syllables in which it took place were
stressed in Proto-Albanian (though not necessarily in PIE), so we may
conjecture that the first step was *sw- > *zw-. It seems that before a
following *w the fricative *z failed to undergo retraction and was
fronted instead (by dissimilation?); the resulting *Dw- gave /d-/ upon
the loss of *w in clusters. The fact that we don't find /D-/ in random
variation with /d-/ in this lexical set is probably significant: *dw-
and *dHw- are also consistently reflected as /d-/ in Albanian. Of course
*g^(H)w- didn't follow the same path because it became monophonemic
*3'W- (> *3^ > z) already in Early Proto-Albanian."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/30215
[= Albanian (3)]
-----
Piotr