From: Dennis Poulter
Message: 2013
Date: 2000-04-03
----- Original Message -----From: Mark OdegardSent: Saturday, 01 April, 2000 9:35 AMSubject: [cybalist] Re: Pelasgians - another (last) wordDennis Poulter, re Pelastoi/PelasgoiI think it most likely that the "g" is a misreading for original "t" (upper case gamma and tau are very similar).
[Sticking my neck out:]Huh?
You would have to argue the Athenians (among others) forgot the word, then came across it in an old inscription, and misread the inscription.
Mark.
Not necessarily. There is a growing opinion and increasing evidence to suggest that the Greek alphabet is considerably older than usually thought. Based on epigraphical considerations, as there are no extant inscriptions, it could date back to pre-Trojan War or even back to 15th century (the traditions of Kadmos). Therefore Homer may have been drawing on written, rather than oral, traditions. Hesychios is his great dictionary gives "pelastikos" as a variant, as does another scholiast on Homer. Therefore this change from "t" to "g" may date from early times and have become the accepted spelling, cf. Hebrides for earlier Hebudes, a change which can only be orthographic in origin. I have argued that "-sg-" cannot be original in purely Greek terms, and is unlikely in whatever language Pelasgian is supposed to be. Also, the earliest attested forms of the word, from 12th century, have a "t" not a "g".
Cheers
Dennis