Indeterminacy in etymology: Reconstructing the PIE word for ‘sheep’ with notes also on Tocharian B ās ‘goat’ and PIE *h₂éwis ‘bird’

The Indo-European word for ‘sheep’ is well-represented in most Indo-European groups.  However, its exact shape in the proto-language is not as well-established as usually thought.  The initial laryngeal has been reconstructed as *h₁-, *h₂-, or *h₃- by various investigators and the noun’s accentual pattern often left undefined.  The argument here is that we cannot reconstruct with certainty.  It seems perhaps most likely that it was an acrostatic *h₂ówi-/h₂éwi- but Tocharian might also reflect either *h₂ōwi- and *h₃ōwi- and, if the latter, *h₃ówi-/h₃éwi- would certainly be possible for other Indo-European groups.  Knowing if PIE *h₃- became χ- in Lycian would help delimit the number of indeterminacies but not solve the problem decisively.  We will be left with multiple possibilities.

Keywords: Indo-European etymology, PIE laryngeals (*h₂, *h₃), ‘Sheep’ etymon (*h₂ówi- ~ *h₃ówi-), Acrostatic nouns, Lengthened-grade Athematic formations (Hitt. āss-, Skr. āsāt), Brugmann’s Law, Tocharian B (ās-), Anatolian evidence, Comparative method.