The Phonological Origin of *bhə
The Albanian grapheme ë (schwa) functions as an independent vowel, signaling that the phoneme /ə/ is articulated separately rather than forming a diphthong or merging with an adjacent vowel. This can be observed in forms such as bej ‘to do’ in the Myzeqar dialect, bëj in standard Tosk, and bo/ba in Gheg. In contrast, the visually similar German diaeresis (Umlaut) performs a different function: it marks a systematic fronting or raising of the vowel (e.g., e → ä), indicating its historical role as a phonologically active diacritic that modifies the quality of the base vowel.
Within this context, I propose a hypothetical proto-form *bhə, belonging to an early developmental phase of the language when vowel articulation was limited and consonantal sonority carried a greater share of phonological weight. As the language evolved toward greater vocalization, this form may have passed through intermediate stages such as *bhə + o → bò, reflecting a gradual increase in the prominence of vowels. Through regular phonetic reduction and analogical leveling, the sequence may have developed into bà → be → bë, preserving the primary labial onset bh, where the vowel ë represents the voiced release or residual element of an earlier h, later lost and absorbed into the labial consonant.
Thus, we may schematically represent the development as:
bhə → bh + o → bo → ba → be → bë
In ancient Greek, a parallel process can be observed in the shift bho → pho, with the perfumative morphological form po + suffix, suggesting a comparable trajectory of labial consonantal aspiration and vocalic restructuring.
This reconstruction is partially supported by contemporary Albanian dialectology and by ancient Greek phonological evidence, as Albanian preserves forms corresponding to each hypothesized stage. This suggests deep phonological stratification and continuity. From this perspective, the most primordial form would have been the minimally vocalized labial consonant cluster *bh, functioning as an early verbal root with a semantic field approaching that of the modern Albanian verb “to do.”
Within this theoretical framework, the form Ò may be interpreted as a secondary morphological development resulting from the combination *bh(ə) + o, in which the schwa ə—interpreted as the voiced residue of the earlier h—is lost, and vocalic sonority is instead supplied by o. This would represent a phase of phonological reorganization in which the vocalic nucleus shifts position while the underlying consonantal root remains intact.
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