From: Abdullah Konushevci
Message: 45419
Date: 2006-07-18
On 7/18/06, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...> wrote:There's something I've always found very remarkable about Albanian: the fact that Indo-European *s in initial position before vowels evolved to the Albanian consonant <gj>, which I understand is a voiced palatal plosive. To me, it is perhaps the most unlikely phonetic change I have ever heard of, yet it occurred (I actually sometimes wondered whether Albanian words with <gj-> truly originated from IE words with *s-). Can anyone offer a reasonable hypothesis as to how a voiceless alveolar sibilant can evolve to a voiced palatal plosive? It would be very reassuring and satisfying to me if someone had an explanation for this change which to me seems to defy the laws of nature!Andrew
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I guess that Alb. voiced palatal stop /gj/ has as an intermediary stage a voiceless palatal sibilant /sh/, probably with high distribution in Albanian vocal system, but, followed by central vowel /a/ or back vowels /o/, /u/ rise to simple palatal stop. Other outcome is, to my view, palatal glide /j/, that I will try to prove very soon.
Much interesting is *sw- > Alb. /d/: *sup-no > Alb. <gjumë> 'sleep', but *swep-o > Alb. <djep> 'cradle', *sw-el- > Alb. <diell> 'sun', but *uws-lo > Alb. <yll> 'star', etc.
I think that much harder explanation needs Greek's voiceless aspiration /h/ as outcome of voiceless apical sibilant *s-.
Konushevci