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Unexpected lengthened grade in Albanian Adam Hyllested, University of Copenhagen Unexpected and otherwise undocumented lengthened grade shows up in Albanian in an unusually large number of cases when compared to the other Indo-European branches. While it is of course possible that the PIE lengthened grade stayed productive and developed a wider use in Pre-Proto-Albanian (as already suggested by Jokl 1916), the attested Albanian forms in fact do not seem to reveal any clear functional patterns. Most cases are therefore assigned individual explanations (to the extent that they are explained at all). The verb vesh ‘wear, put on’, for example, seemingly from *u̯ ōs-, has been identified as a “Narten-root”, while Huld (1984) asserts as the source and old causative *u̯ os-eie- where *o > *a that regularly undergoes umlaut to -e-. The long vowel in njoh ‘to know’ is supposed to either reflect < *ĝnēh₃-skō with lengthened grade analogical from the s-aorist, or the outcome of a zero-grade *ĝn̥ h₃-skō. Among nominal forms, derë ‘door’ has been interpreted as an old collective *d h u̯ ōr-h₂, a solution which, although perhaps not immediately compelling in either case, could apply to dorë ‘hand’ as well (if from *ĝ h ēsr̥ -h₂; Huld 1984, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen p.c.). While possible, hardly any of the morphological explanations are valid for more than a couple of items each, and none of them can therefore clarify why particularly Albanian displays so many cases of secondary lengthened grade both among its verbal and nominal forms. A phonological explanation for dorë going back to Haebler 1967 has proven increasingly popular (embraced by most recent works such as Demiraj 1997, Orel 2000, de Vaan 2004, Matzinger 2006, Vermeer 2008, Matasović 2012), namely that -o- reflects compensatory lengthening arisen by the loss of -s- in the old consonant cluster: *ĝ h esr- > *ĝ h ēr- > *dēr- > *dōr- > dor-. In this paper I will try to show that phonological explanations are indeed preferable in most cases where Albanian deviates from other IE languages, and that there is no need to assert an increased morphological productivity of the lengthened grade in Pre-Proto-Albanian. Crucially, unexpected lengthening occurs almost exclusively preceding consonant clusters, very often heavy ones (consisting of three consonants or more) where at least one consonant has disappeared. Thus, we can assert compensatory lengthening applying to e.g. boj ‘to drive, to mate’ < PPAlb. *bāgnja- < PIE *b h eg w - ‘to run’; huaj ‘foreign, strange’ < PPAlb. *ksōnwja- < PIE *ksen-u̯ -; korrë ‘harvest’ < PPAlb. *kārsnā- < PIE *kerts-neh₂; quaj ‘call, give a name’ < PPAlb. *klōusnja- < PIE *kleu̯ s-; sorrë ‘crow’ < PPAlb. *čārsnā- < PIE *k w ers-neh₂; shoh ‘to see’ < *sāska- < PIE *sek w -skō; thom ‘to say’ < PPAlb. *tsānsmi < PIE *kens-; and zorrë ‘gut’ < PPAlb. *džārnā- < PIE *g w erh₃-neh₂. The possibility remains that at least some of the relevant forms never had long vowels in the first place. Alb. e is already known to be one regular (conditioned) outcome of PIE *e, and *o via umlaut. The case of shoh ‘to see’ is particularly interesting in this respect since a) the lengthened grade is morphologically odd in -sḱ-presents; b) a sequence *-k w -sḱ- was probably already reduced to *-sḱ- in PIE (cf. *pr̥ sḱō < *pr̥ k-sḱō ‘ask’); and (c), in fact we find no other examples of -e- following sh < PIE *s. References: Demiraj, Bardhyl, 1997: Albanische Etymologien. Untersuchungen zum Albanischen Erbwortschatz. Amsterdam / Atlanta: Rodopi. Haebler, Claus, 1967: Review of Hamp. – Die Sprache 13: 79-84. Hamp, Eric, 1966: “The Position of Albanian”. – Henrik Birnbaum & Jaan Puhvel: Ancient Indo-European Dialects.University of California Press. Huld, Martin, 1984: Albanian Etymologies. Bloomington: Slavica. 16
Jokl, Norbert, 1916: Studien zur albanesischen Grammatik 4. Indogermanische Forschungen 37: 199-220. Matasović, Ranko, 2012: A grammatical sketch of Albanian for students of Indo-European. Zagreb. Matzinger, Joachim, 2006: Der Altalbanische Text Mbsuame e Kreshtere (Dottrina cristiana) des Leke Matrenga von 1592: Eine Einfuhrung in die albanische Sprachwissenschaft. Dettelbach: J.H. Röll. Orel, Vladimir, 2000: A concise historical grammar of the Albanian language: reconstruction of Proto-Albanian. Leiden: Brill. de Vaan, Michiel, 2004: “PIE *e in Albanian”. – Die Sprache 44, 1: 70-85. Vermeer, Willem, 2008: “The Prehistory of the Albanian Vowel System: A Preliminary Exploration”. – Evidence and Counter-evidence. Festschrift Frederik Kortlandt, vol. 1 SSGL 32. Amsterdam / New York: Rodopi. Pp. 591-608. 17
Page 1 and 2: The lengthened grade in Indo-Europe
Page 3 and 4: Introduction In the off-years of th
Page 5 and 6: Programme Sunday, July 28 17:00 - 1
Page 7 and 8: Wednesday, July 31 Session 1: Germa
Page 9 and 10: Dehnstufen in der ‚Alteuropäisch
Page 11 and 12: On the lengthening of verbal bases
Page 13 and 14: Derivational modality? The rise (an
Page 15: Notes on three “acrostatic” neu
Page 19 and 20: Lengthened grade in Vedic root noun
Page 21 and 22: Analogical lengthened grades in the
Page 23 and 24: The Nominative Singular of *eh 2 -
Page 25 and 26: Surprise at length of Tocharian nou
Page 27 and 28: The accentuation of Balto-Slavic Vr
Page 29 and 30: Root-structure and the occurrence o
Page 31 and 32: ‛Expressive lengthening’ - ling
Page 33 and 34: The Proto-Indo-European *-VTs# clus
Page 35 and 36: The derivation of Slavic imperfecti
Page 37 and 38: The fourth makes it whole? The redu
Page 39 and 40: Zur Etymologie von griechisch κῆ
Page 41 and 42: Tone variation among Baltic ia-pres
Page 43 and 44: Some Notes on the 3rd Person Future

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