Re: Pelasgians - another (last) word

----- Original Message -----
From: John Croft <jdcroft@...>
To: <cybalist@eGroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 28 March, 2000 12:15 PM
Subject: [cybalist] Pelasgians - another (last) word


> An interesting exercise
>
> Going into the Perseus classical map project and using the various
> words that may be derived from the word Pela(s)goi yeils the following
> results at
>
> http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/patlas?scale=6951900.06621639&zoom
> dir=1&zoomsize=10&plot=Palaikastritsa&plot=Palaikastro&plot=Pelikate&pl
> ot=Phigaleia&plot=Phylace&plot=Phylakopi&plot=Plaka&perseus=&imgext=14.
> 8841696721312+32.2474992770759+27.0010196721312+44.3552324410104&redraw
> .x=44&redraw.y=10
>
> Palaikastritsa is in Corfu
> Palaiikastro is in Eastern Crete
> Pelikate is on Ithaca
> Phylakopi is in the Cyclades
> Plaka is on the tip of Attica
>
> Obviously many of these have good Greek etymologies, but the spread is
> interesting.
>
> With the Greek habit of dropping (s) (eg Tyrrsenoi to Tyrrhenoi)
> dropping it from Pelasgos gives Pelagos = coastal. Another reference
> to "People of the Sea" perhaps? I wonder if that could mean anything?
>
> Just kite flying
>
> Regards
>
> John
>
>

How did you arrive at these place names? Just by having an initial P
followed by L?
I would have thought your first two contained the element "palai-" "old".
Phylakopi has an initial aspirated 'p', so how does that relate to
"pelasgos"?

The Greeks did not "drop" their esses. The 's' developed into 'h', except
word-finally and before or after voiceless stops. Thus "rs" > aspirated
'"rh" Tyrsenos>Tyrrhenos.
Now, this change s>h must have been in operation when the Greeks came into
contact with the Tyrsenoi. If our conclusion that Tyrsenoi=Pelasgoi has any
validity, then presumably the Greeks came into contact with the Pelasgoi
around the same time, i.e. pre-Mycenean.
The s>h change is complete in Linear B, where intervocalic 'h' from 's' is
still preserved. This would suggest that the "sg" of "pelasgos" should have
undergone some kind of change in parallel to the "rs">"rh" of Tyrrhenos. The
change of "s" in Greek also suggests that "z" was not an allophonic variant
of "s" in the Greek of this period, since in voiced environments it
developed to "h".
The only conclusion is that, either the word "pelasgos" is late, i.e.
post-Mycenean, which would militate against the Pelasgians being the 3rd/2nd
millennium phenomenon postulated by Rex, or, my preferred solution, that the
"g" is not original.
I think it most likely that the "g" is a misreading for original "t"
(upper case gamma and tau are very similar). The earliest
attestations of the word (assuming the identification is correct) occur in
Philistia and Egyptian "prst/plst". This would also explain the retention of
the "s" (unlike Tyrrhenos). Given, from Rex's earlier posting, that
"pelasgos" was originally an adjective misconstrued as a noun, I think it's
quite possible that what we have is a non-Greek (Semitic?) rendition of
"palaistos" "oldest", either in the sense that the Pelasgoi were the oldest
inhabitants, or the name or title of the Pelasgian leader "chief elder,
eldest" generalised to his people.

Cheers
Dennis