From: george knysh
Message: 16221
Date: 2002-10-13
> Hist. 1.178 does not mention the Pelasgians. Here's*****GK: Aubrey de Selincourt"s translation for the
> 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