The Indo-European Semivowels in Albanian

IE pure N-grades of the ḷ and ṛ types yield Alb. ul/lu and ur/ru, except where ə appears to have been inserted (perhaps because the form in the N-grade was difficult to pronounce). The extended grades arising in this way fall together with original R-grades, which on becoming stressed or restressed yield Albanian combinations with the vowel a. IE N-grades of the ṃ and ṇ types are indistinguishable from extended grades and R-grades; they yield âm and ân in the Geg dialect, ëm and ën in Tosk. The article presents the evidence for these developments in a large number of etymologies, many of them new.