Robert S. P. Beekes

Who is Robert S. P. Beekes?

Robert Stephen Paul Beekes is Emeritus Professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the University of Leiden and the author of many books about Proto-Indo-European. One of his more well-known books is Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction, a standard handbook on the Proto-Indo-European language. It treats the area of linguistic reconstruction thoroughly, but also features cultural reconstruction and comparative linguistic methods in general.

Beekes is also a leading authority on the Etruscan language and co-author with L. B. Van der Meer of De Etrusken Spreken. He advocates the oriental origin theory for the Etruscans.

Currently, Beekes is working on Pre-Greek, the language that was spoken in Greece before Greek came in, possibly around 2000 BC. Since this language was not written, Beekes gets his information from words in Classical Greek that clearly show a non-Greek structure and development.