Rhotic degemination in Sanskrit and the etymology of Vedic ūrú- ‘thigh’, Hittite UZU(u)walla- ‘id.’

Abstract

This paper examines the absence of geminate -rr- in Sanskrit and argues that the synchronic ban on this sequence results from continued high ranking of an Obligatory Contour Principle constraint against heteromorphemic geminates (inherited from PIE) combined with the substrate influence of Dravidian languages in which the rhotics are non-geminable. New -rr- sequences that arose in Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-Aryan from PIE *-LL- or *-LHL- after loss of the laryngeal and merger of *l with the rhotic were repaired through degemination. This hypothesis predicts a development of PIE *(-)CL̥HLV- to Sanskrit (-)Cī/ūrV- which has not been previously recognized in the treatments of Indic historical phonology. This development is arguably found in mūrá- ‘stupid’ < *mūrra- < *mr̥hx-lo- (cf. Hitt. marlant- ‘stupid’), ūrú- ‘thigh’ < *u̯ūrru- < *(hx)u̯l̥hx-Lu- ← *(hx)u̯l̥hx-Lo- (cf. Hitt. walla- ‘thigh’), śīrá- ‘fervent’ < *śīrrá- < *k̑l̥hx-Ló- (cf. śrā́ya-ti ‘be fervent’), and perhaps in several other examples.