Hittite walwa 'lion' WAS: Bears and why they are mostly...

[petegray]

>> The initial *w- in this Schwebeablauting root can be proved
>> with the help of the greek material, cf. e.g.
>> Tro:es de {F}leiousin eoikotes o:mophagoisi

Unreliable, unless the digamma is required in many or most occurrences of
this  word.  Lengthening before a resonant had become an unexplained
phenomenon in epic poetry, so it spread to words where it did not originally
belong.

Unfortunately I have no Homeric concordance, so can't check.

Peter