alexandru_mg3 wrote:
> Please if you can help me with an explanation on: what could be the
> PIE sequence to can explain the y in Albanian sy 'eye'
The best explanation I've seen is that of Eric Hamp:
The singular (Tosk sy, def. syri, Geg sy^, sy^ni) is analogical after
monosyllabic nouns like <dru, druri> 'wood' (Geg drû, drûni; coll.
dru:), so the fundamental form to be explained is the plural <sy:> (in
the dialects that preserve vowel length). Hamp analyses it as the old
neuter dual *h3okW-íh1 which fell in, formally, with a feminine,
imitating the pattern of the numeral "two", i.e. f. dy: < *dy-ë, a
femininising extension of <dy> from *du: < *d(w)o:u (monophthongised
after the unrounding of inherited *-u: in monosyllabic words). In other
words, the replacement of expected *si by <sy:> is due to analogy, not
to regular phonetic development.
Piotr