THE SABINE -L-

I recently learned that there is a phenomenon of the letter d in Ancient Greek sometimes becoming l in Latin. Here are some examples of this:

• The Latin-based word lachrymose comes from Greek dakryma, meaning "tear".
• Latin olere ("to emit a smell") comes from Greek Greek odme ("scent"; also the source of odor)
• Ulysses is the Latin name for Greek Odysseus
• The Latin word for "laurel," laurus, is apparently related to Greek daphne

There are several other such examples, but hardly enough to create a sound change law. One hypothesis that was proposed is that there was a Sabine dialect of Latin which generalized their d and l sounds. This is called the "Sabine -L-" hypothesis and it's been largely discredited because there's no way to consistently describe the process involved. Despite that, nobody really knows why the words changed in this way. Maybe typographic error? Maybe some other obscure linguistic quirk? Just wanted to share this cool mystery.