Robert Stephen Paul Beekes (Dutch: [ˈrɔbərd ˈbeːkəs]; 2 September 1937 – 21 September 2017)[1] was a Dutch linguist who was emeritus professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at Leiden University and an author of many monographs on the Proto-Indo-European language.

Beekes was also a co-author, with L. Bouke van der Meer, of De Etrusken spreken (1991).

He advocated the Asia Minor theory to explain the Etruscans' origin.

[3] He also did work on Pre-Greek, the (non-Indo-European) language that was spoken in Greece before Greek, possibly around 2000 BC.

Since this language was not written, Beekes obtained his information from many words in Classical Greek that show a non-Greek structure and development.