THE INDO-EUROPEAN PREHISTORY OF THE ALBANIAN WORD FOR ‘SISTER’ Marek Majer, Uni

THE INDO-EUROPEAN PREHISTORY OF THE ALBANIAN WORD FOR ‘SISTER’ Marek Majer, University of Lodz Abstract: In the present article, which builds on an almost overlooked suggestion by Eric Hamp, it is argued that Albanian motër ‘sister’ is not a direct reflex of Proto-Indo-European *meh2ter- ‘mother’ (with an unexpected shift of meaning) – as assumed almost universally in the literature – but that it represents an early derivative of this word, probably *māt(e)rā < *meh2t-(e)r-eh2 ‘of the [same] mother’ or ‘having the [same] mother’. Such an item may have been easily lexicalized as a replacement of the inherited word for ‘sister’; cf. Greek αδελφ(ε)ός ‘brother’ < *sm ̥ -gʷelbʰ-es-o- ‘of the same womb’ or Spanish hermano ‘brother’ < Latin germānus ‘of [one’s own] kin, real, full’. Thus, despite widespread claims to the contrary, Albanian ‘sister’ can probably be explained via fairly trivial developments and does not document any extraordinary facts about (Pre-)Albanian kinship terminology or social structure. 1. Introduction. Albanian kinship terminology and the word for ‘sister’1 As is well-known, Albanian only preserves a small part of the Proto-Indo- European kinship terminology.2 Most of the basic kinship terms have been replaced by innovative terms (be it new coinages, nursery words, or borrowings), while the familiar items known from other Indo-European 1 Apart from the Ljubljana conference, this research was also presented at the 38th International Seminar of Albanian Language, Literature and Culture (Seminari XXXVIII Ndërkombëtar për Gjuhën, Letërsinë dhe Kulturën Shqiptare), Prishtina, 19–30 August 2019; a somewhat abridged Albanian-language version of the present study will appear under the title Parahistoria indoevropiane e fjalës shqipe për ‘motrën’ in the proceedings of the above Seminar. I would like to thank the participants of both events for their helpful comments and corrections; in addition, I would like to thank Victor Friedman, Plator Gashi, Brian Joseph and Sergio Neri, with whom I discussed the matter at other occasions. All opinions and errors are my own. 2 For a recent overview of Indo-European kinship terminology in a typological, areal and social context, with rich further literature, cf. Milanova 2016 and 2018. pre-publication version definitive version to be published in the proceedings of: IG / SIES / SÉIE Arbeitstagung (100 years of comparative linguistics at the University of Ljubljana) Ljubljana, 4–7 June 2019 Ljubilej – Ljubljäum – Ljubilee – Ljubljanniversaire 2 MAREK MAJER languages – and thus reconstructible for Proto-Indo-European – have not left a single uncontroversial trace:3 Table 1. Replacements of core PIE kinship terms in Albanian PIE term gloss sample reflexes replacements in Alb. *ph2ter- ‘father’ Ved. pitŕ ̥ -, Gr. πατήρ, Lat. pater → atë, baba etc. *bʰreh2ter- ‘brother’ Ved. bhrā́ tr ̥ -, Lat. frāter, Toch. B procer → vëlla etc. *swesor- ‘sister’ Ved. svásr ̥ -, Lat. soror, Lith. sesuõ → motër etc. *suhnu- ‘son’ Ved. sūnú-, Goth. sunus, Lith. sūnùs → bir, djalë etc. *dʰugh2ter- ‘daughter’ Ved. dúhitr ̥ -, Gr. θυγάτηρ, OArm. dowstr → bijë, vajzë etc. Albanian kinship terms with demonstrable Indo-European ties are limited to a few less central items, such as e.g. vjehërr ‘father-in-law’ (< PIE *sweḱuro-, with phonological complications; cf. Ved. śváśura-, Gr. ἑκυρος, PSl. *svekrъ), nip/mbesë4 ‘grandson, nephew’ / ‘granddaughter, niece’ (< PIE *nepot- /*neptih2, cf. Ved. nápāt, Lat. nepōs, OLith. nepuotis). Finally, some items may represent lexical replacements of considerable age, built of Indo-European elements; cf. gjysh ‘grandfather’ (< Post-PIE *suhsiyos, *suhsēn or similar;5 cf. Ved. sūṣa ̄́, a form with various interpretations).6 However, a curious exception vis-à-vis the list presented in Table 1 above is the Albanian word for ‘sister’, motër (def. -a; pl. motra, -at; dial. and OAlb. motërë, motrë). Famously, it appears to be a direct reflex of the Proto-Indo- European word for ‘mother’, i.e. *meh2ter-7 (Ved. mā́tr ̥ -, Gr. µήτηρ, Lat. māter 3 On the alleged derivation of vajzë ‘girl, daughter’ from PIE *swesor- ‘sister’, cf. further below in section 3 (with footnote 14). 4 If not instead borrowed from Lat. nepōs and VLat. *nepōtia, cf. Dalm. nepoça; see Demiraj 1997: 259, 301–302. 5 We are probably dealing with a derivative of the root *sewh- ‘give birth’, replacing the inherited PIE term *h2ewh2o- (Hitt. ḫuḫḫaš, Lat. avus, Toch. B āwe etc.). Cf. Mayrhofer EWAia: 714. I am indebted to Sergio Neri for a discussion on the possible proto-forms here. 6 It is unlikely that the term joshë ‘grandmother’ has any links to Proto-Indo-European kinship terminology, despite being accepted as derived from PIE *h2ewh2-ih2 e.g. in Mallory & Adams 2009: 216; cf. Demiraj 1997: 209. However, the innovative word for ‘brother’, vëlla, is probably composed of Indo-European material; cf. further below in section 4. 7 Conventionally reconstructed in this form in modern Indo-European linguistics, and this notation is followed here; however, assuming the ubiquitous child language syllable [ma(ː)] as the basis is perhaps no less likely (recently e.g. Ringe 2017: 16 – attributed to Michael Weiss, who, however, THE INDO-EUROPEAN PREHISTORY OF THE ALBANIAN WORD FOR ‘SISTER’ 3 etc.). This is the standpoint accepted in all of the etymological dictionaries of Albanian (Meyer 1891: 287–288; Çabej 1976: 371; Demiraj 1997: 279; Huld 1984: 96; Orel 1998: 275; Topalli 2018: 1009), in modern handbooks of Indo- European (e.g. NIL: 457–460), as well as in authoritative treatments of Albanian in an Indo-European context (e.g. Matzinger 2018: 1789). Under this scenario, motër is the only basic Proto-Indo-European kinship term directly reflected in Albanian. This isolated status need not be a problem in itself, as it may simply reflect the extensive lexical replacement otherwise assured for Albanian. However, the unexpected meaning of the term motër certainly does give one pause; it is a conspicuous problem that cannot be escaped. As such, it has received a fair amount of coverage in the literature. 2. Accounting for the apparent semantic shift: previous approaches For the most part, the issue of the ostensible change of meaning in the reflex of PIE *meh2ter- has been dealt with in two ways. 2.1 ‘Pure’ semantic change. The first theory, in essence, simply stipulates that PIE *meh2ter- ‘mother’ underwent the perplexing semantic change ‘mother’ > ‘sister’ sometime during the development to attested Albanian. The precise trajectory is rarely discussed at length; one could in principle assume a combination of semantic broadening (e.g. to ‘woman’ or ‘female relative’) with subsequent narrowing (to ‘sister’). Whatever the details, the word has been used in the literature as a showcase example of uncanny semantic developments; cf. Eska & Ringe (2004: 572): One may note that Albanian motër ‘sister’ continues a form of Proto-IE *meh2ter- ‘mother’, thus demonstrating that semantic shifts in female kin terms are possible and that the meanings cannot be taken for granted. The explanation under discussion is of course impossible to disprove, but the assumption that one of the most central inherited kinship terms would have been hit by two (or more) consecutive instances of far-reaching semantic change – opts for *meh2ter- in 2009: 42). The case for *meh2- could be made stronger if a semantically compelling connection to an otherwise known root of this shape were established, which does not seem to be the case so far (see a recent novel proposal in Ackermann 2018). For discussion see e.g. NIL: 459 or Pinault 2007: 275–277 (including a general treatment of Proto-Indo-European kinship terms in *-h2ter-; cf. also Pinault 2005). 4 MAREK MAJER unparalleled in any other Indo-European language8 – is rather costly. The various parallels adduced in the literature fail to replicate the development allegedly seen here: instead, they mostly demonstrate the predictable polysemy of assorted nursery words.9 Hence, it is not surprising that other avenues have been explored. 2.2 Specific circumstances in (Proto-)Albanian kinship structure and terminology Under the alternative approach, it is assumed that the divergent denotation of the reflex of *meh2ter- is not due to a mere haphazard semantic drift of the ‘ordinary’ variety, but rather that it reflects some particular developments in the structure of the (Pre-)Albanian society. A typical instantiation of the theory is the assumption that, in that society, older sisters would take custody of their younger siblings and thus fulfil the role of mothers; the terminology would have adapted accordingly. Thus, the change would have been largely extralinguistic. First proposed by Meyer (1891: 287–288), the hypothesis was later widely embraced, e.g. by Tagliavini (1965: 118), Pudić (1978: 115), Çabej (1976: 371), and recently Topalli (2018: 1009). In fact, under this approach, the unique meaning of motër has often been thought to reveal a substantial amount of information on the entire system of kinship terminology of the (Pre-)Albanians. For a telling example of how much has been inferred from it, cf. e.g. Huld (1984: 96): In Omaha-kinship systems of terminology as is reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European, the term ‘mother’ extends to the mother’s sister and her daughters (...). If the intermediate kinship terminology of the pre-Albanians was of the Hawaiian type, then these cousin terms would come to mean ‘sibling’ as well. The transfer to ‘sibling’ only was facilitated by the rise of Eskimo-type terms in the early Middle Ages when ‘cousin’ was borrowed from Latin.10 uploads/Litterature/ the-indo-european-prehistory-of-the-albanian-word-for-x27-sister-x27-majer-2019.pdf

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littérature albanian indo-european kinship motër ‘sister’
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