alexandru_mg3 wrote:
> 1. Why to move the accent from the first to the last syllable if
> all the suffixes was already there 'from the beginning'? there is no
> reason to do this...
-í: (< *-ija: or the like) was not there "from the beginning". It was
used to extend a word previously stressed on the initial syllable. The
reason for the shift is the underlying accent of -í:, a stress-enforcing
suffix.
> 2. If the accent was on the first syllable how you can pronounce a 4-
> syllable word with this accent => you will finish 'your air' :)
> Please try:
> má-dhë-shti-ja or something similar => is impossible
Never say "impossible" if you just mean "hard to pronounce as far as I'm
concerned". Your personal difficulty is not a universal law. British
English has <véterinary>, which ends in four unstressed syllables. The
first of them is often syncopated, but even the tremainder is, according
to your criteria, less "possible" than *mádhështë (the form which I
actually think underlies <madhështí:>). Or, please, try <intélligible>
-- does it take your breath away? Even in American English the stress is
on the pre-antepenultimate syllable, exactly as in your "impossible" word.
Piotr