Proto-Indo-European Initial *r Revisited

Abstract

The ante-rhotic vocalic prothesis has been postulated for the history of Hittite, Greek, Armenian, and Albanian—languages, which are often believed to have no inherited PIE words beginning with a rhotic. With the advance of the laryngeal theory, the existence of the ante-rhotic prothesis has been critically revised for Hittite, Greek, and Albanian. However, a closer look at the available evidence leaves one with a wide scale of possibilities of analysis not limited to postulating laryngeals before any PIE initial rhotic. Given that all of the aforementioned branches are primarily localized in Asia Minor or adjacent territories and that they most likely had split from the proto-language at different periods, the hypothesis of the ante-rhotic vocalic prothesis as an aerial feature may prove to be the most economic explanation of facts.