(ῥωτακισμός/rhotakismós), technical term used by Greek grammarians and referring to the (frequent) use of the sound [r] represented by the letter referred to as ῥῶ/rhō; coined in analogy with ἰωτακισμός/iōtakismós, Itacism). Rhotacism involves the change of a voiced dental or alveolar consonant in an intervocalic position into the liquid [r], or more precisely its replacement by [r]. Rhotacism sometimes leads to the alternation of /s/ and /r/ observed in inflexion and/or word formation.
The typical and most frequent case is ([s] >) [z] > [r]: Latin *eset > ezet (ESED…