Vocalic /r/ and /l/ in Mycenean Greek

[Anthony Appleyard]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

For those who think that vocalic /r/ and /l/ persisted from IE into Mycenean
Greek (as some Greek dialects present IE vocalic /r/ as {ar}, {ra} and others
present it as {or}, {ro}, e.f. {stratos} / {strotos} = "army": there is
evidence from Homer. In Homer several times a line ends in the standard formula
{li/pous' andro/te:ta kai /he:be:n} = "[when he was slain, his soul fled]
leaving manhood and youth": the / / mark the ends of the metrical feet. The
foot /pous' andro/ is not valid for dactylic meter. As with many metrical
faults in Homer, this fault may have been caused by a language change after the
text was composed: if {androte:ta} was pronounced {a-nr-ta:-ta} with a vocalic
/r/ (from the root {H2-n-r} = "man") when this formula was invented, it scans
correctly.