Evidence for Laryngeals in Albanian

Evidence for laryngeals in Albanian
(An outline)

I am using intentionally almost the same title “Evidence for
Laryngeals in Albanian”1 by Eric Hamp, written 40 years ago, who, to
my view, till now, is the best scholar that have treated this aspect,
showing with many examples, that there are many evidences of laryngeals
in Albanian, as are in other non-Anatolian Indo-European languages. His
view was rejected by H. Ölberg, accoreding to Lindeman, that obviously
support H. Ölberg’s objections. Because I am not in position to have
and to check it, I will beg every one that could do it, to help me with
this H. Ölberg’s view.

The paragraph is: E. Hamp, EvfL., 123, sees a reflex of an IE
'laryngeal' in the Albanian h. However, H. M. H. Ölberg, KZ 86, 1972,
121 ff., has shown that Hamp's etymologies are ad hoc constructions
that cannot prove a 'laryngeal' origin for Alb. h. (Frederik Otto
Lindeman "Introduction to the 'Laryngeal Theory"', Innsbruck, 1997, pp.
39.)

I. Laryngeals in initial position
1.1. */H1/ (and */H2/ > Alb. /h/.
There are many evidences that laryngeal */H1/ was preserved in initial
position in Albanian.
1.1a. Alb. <hûlli> ‘furrow’, to my view, was derived from
*H1og’m-ul-ieH2 with metathesis g’ – m > m – g’ and with
regular narrowing of */o/ to /u/ followed by nasal (cf. *eg’om > Alb.
<û> ‘I’): Hittite akkala ‘id.’: Old Irish *og-mo ‘id.’.
So, reconstructed root *H1ag’- by Watkins2 seems most plausible one.
Other derivatives, preceded by prefix, like grah ‘to lead, drive’
from *kor-H1ag’-sk’o testify for lost of laryngeal in this
position. The same is true for Umlauted form ngreh ‘to pull, draw,
attract; ***’ with double prefixed form *H1en-*kor-ag’-sk’o.
gër-/kër- are collective suffix derived from PIE *ko(m)- with variant
forms gr-/kr-. (Pokorny ag’- 4.)

Note: E. Hamp has different etymology about Albanian hulli (LEA, 132.)

1.2a. Alb. <hap> ‘I open’. Prefixal derivatives: për-hap ‘I
spread’, adverb pr-apë ‘again’, adverb and preposition pr-apa
‘backwards’ Reconstructed form *H1epo-/H1opo-. About derivative
prapë ‘again’, Hamp claims that it appears we have *per- > *prV-
plus *hap-; in that case *h seems to be subsequently lost after /+/, or
else after close juncture: Hittite apa ‘afterwards, again, back’,
Hieroglyphic Hittite apan(a) ‘back, again’: Lycian epn: Sanskrit
apa ‘away, forth’: Greek apo ‘away from,, from’, aps
‘backwards, again’: Latin ab ‘from’: Old High German aba
‘off, away from’. (Pokorny apo- 53.)

Note: Hamp didn’t mentioned Albanian prapa ‘backward, behind,
after’ that together with Hittite apan(a), Sanskrit apa, OHG aba
testifies for its adverbial origin, as well as its preverb character.
D. Adam derives Alb. /f-/ as prefix, interchangeable with /h/, from
*H4ops-.

1.3a. Alb. hynj ‘to enter’ from *H2ew-n-yo with regular –VwV- >
Albanian /y/ (cf. *duwo > Albanian dy ‘two’, *drew-nu > Albanian
dryni/dryri ‘lock, padlock’, *gwri:-wa:-keH2 > Alb. grykë
‘gizzard, neckband. gap, throat’ ) from *H2ew- ‘off, away’.

1.3b. Albanian hut ‘empty’ from suffixed participle form *hu-to:
Greek  ‘empty, useless’: Old
High German o:di: ‘id’. Further extended meaning ‘owl’ used as
petrified adjective.

1.3c. O-grade form *H2ou-, colored to H2au- have yielded Alb. a- in
a-i/a-jo ‘he/she’, a-ta/a-to ‘they’, a-tje ‘there’, a-shtu
‘in that way’ etc.: Latin au-, Sanskrit ava- ‘off, down’,
Slavic u- ‘away’. This etymology of Albanian a- was accepted as
well by J. E. Rasmussen in Cybalist. (Pokorny 3. au- 72.)
Note: Hamp thought that –n- was verbal infix. (ELA, 126.)

1.4a. Alb. hini ‘ash, cinders’ with Tosk variant hiri seems to be
derived from suffixed zero-grade form *H2i-nu of *H2ei- ‘to burn’:
Germanic compound *aim-uzjo:n ‘ashes’ from *aima- ‘ashes’
(*uzjo- to burn from *eus-): Latin Aetna from *aith-na ‘the fiery
one’ from indigenous language of Sicily: Greek 
‘heat’, Sanskrit édhas ‘fire-wood’.

1.4b. Alb. hith ‘nettle’, Gheg plural hitha, Tosk one hithra from
*H2i-st-o, where –st- is zero-grade of *sed- ‘to sit’: probably
from its fiery nature. It is worth to be noticed that in the day of
Saint Gorge (6 of May) is a common custom to be prepared hithe-nik
‘pie of nettles’, connecting in this way with its primary meaning
‘to burn’, for Saint Gorge was imagined as dragon that belch fire.

1.4c. Alb. ethe ‘fever’ from suffixed colored form
*H2ai-st-yeH2/*H2ai-dh-yeH2, synonymic with <zjarrmi> ‘fever,
glow’.

1.4d. <et> ‘thirst’, Standard Albanian etje, from extended suffixed
form *H2aidh-to, used as noun from petrified participle form. (Pokorny
ai-dh- 11.)

1.5. Alb. herdhe ‘testicles’ as pluralia tantum, from collective
form *H1org’hiye¬H2: Old Irish uirge ‘id.’: Hittite arkiya
‘testicle’: Armenian nom. Pl. orjikc: Greek orkhis ‘id.’:
Avestan ərəzi- ‘id.’. (Pokorny org’hi- 782, ergh- 339.)

1.6a. Alb. hâ ‘I eat’ from *H1ed-om due to VDV = V (D ‘voiced
stop’).

1.6b. Aorist ngrânë and Tosk form ngrënë from double prefixed
participle form *H1en- + *kor-ed- ent-o. Lacking of rhotacism (n > r /
V_V) in Tosk dialect shows that /n/ is from cluster –nt- > -nd- >
-nn-. Dialectal participle form hanger testifies for preserving of
laryngeal with inversion ngër-ha: Latin edere ‘to eat’: Old High
German ezzen ‘id.’: Slavic jesti ‘id.’.

1.6c. Albanian huni/uni and Tosk form uri ‘hunger’ is derived from
*H3ed-un-ieH2: Greek odune: ‘pain’. (Pokorny ed- 287.)

1.7a. Albanian hyp ‘to ascend’, Standard Albanian hip ‘id.’, as
derived by Hamp, from *xu:p-o: or with new symbols for laryngeals
*H1u:p-o: Hittite upzi ‘(sun) rises’: Sanskrit upa ‘up,
hither’, upari ‘over’. He later cited Meyer’s form ungjip
‘ascendit’, that he has found in Piana dei Greci and analized it as
u- (medio-reflexive prefix), plus n-gjip < prefixal *Vn- + sup-; for
initial *s before accent, cf. gjumë ‘sleep’: hypnos.

1.7b. Quite interesting is his analysis of Albanian humb ‘to lose, go
down; get lost’ as nasalized form of *H1sump-o; adjective i/e
hupëtë ‘dry (for bread), firm (of snow) with different umbat
‘deep’ found in Borgo Erizzo . According to him, Albanian hyp and
humb are semantically in relation to one another as Goth. uf to ufar,
Greek hypo to hyper, Irish fo to for, Lat. sub to super and sus- <
*sups- (: OCS vъs- / vъz-).(ELA, pp. 128). Indeed, Albanian antonym
is zhdryp ‘to go down, descend’.

Note: My view about Albanian humb with secondary homorganig /m/ and
voiced bilabial /b/ preceded by nasal, is that primary form was hup
‘to lost, lose’ and as semantically, as phonetically is hard to be
separated from *euH- ‘to leave, abandon, give out, waste, miss’,
which oldest form was *H1euH2-. So, Albanian form hup is much easer to
be derived from extended suffixed zero-grade form *H1uH2p-o: Old Norse
vanta ‘to lack’: New Persina vang ‘vacant, empty’:Armenian
unain ‘id.’: Latin va:nus, vastus ‘id.’ (Pokorny 1. eu- 345.)
If someone has the article of Ölberg, I will be very grateful to him.

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