Another thorny problem

Abstract

Students of Indo-European are beset by thorns, from the third letter of the Runic alphabet through the Hieroglyphic Luvian excrescent +ra/i to Brugmann's 'Notbehelf' *kp of such cognate sets as the word for 'bear'; see J. Schindler, "A thorny problem," Die Sprache 23 (1977) 25ff. Our problem is simpler, however sticky; it is a pleasure to offer a suggestion for its solution to Professor Bojan Čop, who has so enriched Hittite studies over so many years.