--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
>
> Abdullah, what is the relationship between ka and nga, both
meaning 'from'?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
>
> Patrick
************
To my view, they are just two dialectal forms. First one <kah> is Geg
and has also the meaning 'from', but it has also the
meaning 'direction' (kahu or kahje 'direction').
But, in many contexts we found also the meaning 'where': Kah po
shkon 'Where do you go?' (cf. also <kahdo/ngado> 'everywhere', as
well as <gjithëkah> 'id.', <askah> 'nowhere', <dikah> 'somewhere').
Much more interesting is the meaning 'near, close, by' in expressions
like: Ish kah të njëzetat 'He was about 20 years (old)' that speaks
in someway for its origin from *kom-. <nga> is a prefixed form of
<kah>: n-kah (velar stop /k/ preceded by n- is usually voiced /g/).
It was linked with Greek <kata> 'down' (Meyer), with Greek <pe>
(Camarda) and with Slavic <ka/k> as is explained by Orel from *(en)
kwod (so) '(in) which (is) this' and indeed it has as preposition in
some context this meaning: Kah vjen kjo gjë? 'Wherein this comes
out?'.
So, by all means, as preposition it has the meaning 'where' and must
be separated from <kah> 'near, about, close'.
Except in <kahdo/ngado> that Toks dialect has its counterpart, in
other cases it is impossible to find, for example, <*as-nga, *di-nga,
gjithë-nga, that testifies for striking productive possibility of Geg
dialect.
Konushevci