On the Development of the Proto-Indo-European *u̯ih1-ró-, ‘Man’, in Latin
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.26.2023.26.05Keywords:
Latin etymology, Latin language, historical lexicologyAbstract
The present article investigates the problem of the etymology and development of the Latin word vir, ‘man,’ usually assumed to have descended from the Proto-Indo-European form *u̯ih1 -ró-, ‘man’, but with somewhat irregular and not commonly accepted pretonic shortening of the vowel in view of the cognates in Indo-Iranian and Baltic. The shortening is usually explained as an effect of Dybo’s Rule, but it is pointed out that there might be a simpler solution to explaining the change, namely, the socalled Osthoff’s law, which occurred in the prehistory and history of Latin at least three times.
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