Albanian Words Research Articles

Initial Voiced Laryngeal Plus */y/ in Albanian

Albanian possesses a palatal semivowel represented orthographically by j. Although this sound appears in initial position, it does not seem likely that it is the normal Albanian development of initial IE */y/. Albanian jis seen most frequently in loanwords: jarm 'plow' Alb. /z/ upon two etymologies. (1) He equates Alb. ziej 'boil' with Gk. zeo 'seethe' and Skt. ydsati 'seethes'. It seems more likely, however, that the Albanian word is