Re: [tied] Early PAlb Depalatisations of k', g' > k, g

alexandru_mg3 wrote:

> 1. Alb. mjekër < PAlb *mekra (reshaped form) or *mekri < PIE
> *smek^r. => the depalatization of *smek^ru affected the Lith too:
> smãkras but not the Sanskrit : smasru
>
> NOTE : this is the second example (after grurë where g^/r. > g/r.)
> showing a depalatatization based on r. -> k^/r. > k/r
> (see at Demiraj: Alb. mjekër < PIE *smek^r.)
>
> (Even it wasn't r. but only r is not very important for this
> discussion: we talk here only about 'a sonorant context')

ON the contrary, it's _crucially_ important. The satemisation of *k^, g^
and *g^H was blocked or cancelled before _consonantal_ liquids and
nasals, but not before their syllabic variants. In *smek^ru- there was
no syllabic *r. in PIE, and so we have /k/ in <mjekër>. From *g^Hr.zdo-
'cereal, barley', on the other hand, we get <drithë>. Your
"counterexamples" with non-syllabic sonorants are therefore irrelevant.

> 2. Alb. gju 'knee' < PAlb *gluna < *g(a)nu-na < PIE *g^onu-
> based on PIE *g^enu => even the intermediary phases are not clear
> enough the root is obvius *g^enu and the depalatization is obvious
> here too.
>
> 3. Alb. krye 'head' < PIE *kra:nja: < krasnja: < cognate of Grk.
> kranion
>
> (It's true that I strongly suspect for krye a linked with Rom.
> creier Rom. variant crier 'brain' < Lat. cerebelum)
>
> 4. Alb. grurë 'wheat' < gruna: < *gr.:na: < PIE *g'r.:no-

PIE did not have a long syllabic *r.: here but a laryngeal (*g^r.h2no-).
The hypothetical regular development of the 'grain' word in Albanian
would be into *3arn- > *d(h)arr-, unattested in the language.

> so for grurë we can consider *gr.na: at a very early stage.
>
> Note: the laringeal that you have talked about produced only the
> lengthening of r. -> r.h2 > r.:

No, it produced effects that vary from branch to branch. For example, in
Latin *r. > or but *r.H > ra:. In Germanic the laryngeal makes no
difference; in Balto-Slavic the effect is a tonal one. In Vedic, the
reflex of *r. is a syllabic rhotic, but *r.H becomes /i:r/ or /u:r/.

> So seems that the rules are:
> r.: > ru~ur
> r. > ri~ir
> l.: > lu~ul
> l. > li~il
>
> What examples with r. < ar do you have?

Not "r. < ar" but *r.H, *l.H > ar, al ; here are some of the best
examples (but many more could be quoted)

*bHr.h2g^o- 'white, bright' > bardhë (and the 'stork' word in Romanian)
*pr.h3wo- 'first' > parë
*wl.Hnah2 'wave' > valë

> 5. I think also that a good example of r. > ur is also
>
> Alb. gurë 'stone' < PAlb gura: < PIE *gWr.-
> zero-grade of PIE *gWer- 'mountain' :
> see Dacian. Giri-dava Skt. giri 'mountain'.

This is a special development before a lost intervocalic laryngeal in
*gWr.H-i- > *gWr.i- > *gWuri- (or the like). A prop vowel (here
presumably coloured by the labiovelar) was inserted _before_ the *r.,
since the loss of the *H was earlier than the characteristically
Albanian development of *r. > *ri .

Piotr