Hist. 1.178 does not mention the
Pelasgians. Here's Rawlinson's translation of 1.57 & 58:
"What
the language of the Pelasgi was I cannot say with any certainty. If, however, we
may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken by the Pelasgi of the present day
-- those, for instance, who live at Creston above the Tyrrhenians, who formerly
dwelt in the district named Thessaliotis, and were neighbours of the people now
called the Dorians -- or those again who founded Placia and Scylace upon the
Hellespont, who had previously dwelt for some time with the Athenians - or
those, in short, of any other of the cities which have dropped the name but are
in fact Pelasgian; if, I say, we are to form a conjecture from any of these, we
must pronounce that the Pelasgi spoke a barbarous language. If this were really
so, and the entire Pelasgic race spoke the same tongue, the Athenians, who were
certainly Pelasgi, must have changed their language at the same time that they
passed into the Hellenic body; for it is a certain fact that the people of
Creston speak a language unlike any of their neighbours, and the same is true of
the Placianians, while the language spoken by these two people is the same;
which shows that they both retain the idiom which they brought with them into
the countries where they are now settled.
"The Hellenic race has never,
since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me.
It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, and at
first was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and
increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its
ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as
I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied."
In this
passage, <barbaros> (<... e:san hoi Pelasgoi barbaron glo:ssan
hientes>) evidently = non-Hellenic.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
From:
alexmoeller@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday,
October 13, 2002 3:49 PM
Subject: [tied] Herodot, definition of "barbarian
language"
Herodot lib. I 57 and 58 , cf. ibidem I 178 -- so I found
it
in Prehistoric Dacia of N. Densu$ianu, 1913
Translation is made by
me, so please be carefully with it.
Better take a look in a authorised source
or in your own
sources for this.The
"What a langauge used the
pelasgians I cannot say very sure;
but if we are allowed to make a conclusion
after the
pelasgians who still today live in the city of Crestonia
below
of Tursens ( in the oriental part of Macedonia, near meer) and
who
once inhabited the region called today Thessaliotis.. and
if we will keep in
mind that the langauge of pelasgians who
builded the cities of Placia and
Scylace from Hellespont and
who before lived together with Athenians, we
would say, the
pelasgians used a barbarian langauge..."
From what
Herodot say, we could just understand that this
"barbarian" language was not
just everything which was not
greek, but a certainly language. But what
about, we still know
nothing. This is why I asked in a precedent mail about
a
selective definition of "barbarian
langauge".
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