Reconstruction:Proto-Albanian/mala

Etymology
From or related to Illyrian. Vladimir Orel proposed 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 as cognates. reflecting an ancient Balkan toponym /, ,, and 🇨🇬. Preserved in patroynms, ethnonym, in toponym (historical and ethnographic region) Malësia (north Albania and Montenegro). In Kosovo (Malishevë, Gjilan, Mališevo, Prizren), in Serbia (Maleševo (Golubac), Maleševo (Rekovac)) and the name of Maleshevo Mountain (North Macedonia and Bulgaria). Gil'Ferding proposed 🇨🇬 as a cognate. According to Michel Morvan a common pre-indo-european with 🇨🇬 and  (cf. pre-indo-european geonymic root *mal (*mel, *mol); Dravidian  and Malayalam ).

La Piana and Huld suggested 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬, both derived from. Also connected to Ancient Greek, ,. Cf. also 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, with a semantic development from ‘head’ > ‘summit’, compare ) > ‘mountain’.

Alternatively, from or a Paleo-Balkan, cognate to 🇨🇬.

Noun

 * 1) mount
 * 2) mountain
 * 3) forest