Re: [tied] Question on Albanian sy

From: Abdullah Konushevci
Message: 42080
Date: 2005-11-12

Dear Piotr,
 
Would you please be so kind to cite this article by Eric Hamp, for I was not in position to read it, but, as you may see in Balkanika, I have expressed exactly the same idea with different treatment of bemolization of /i/ to /y/.
 
Konushevci
 
On 11/12/05, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
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

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