The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3): Literally Translated, with NotesStrabo
History
The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3): Literally Translated, with Notes
Strabo
Geography -- Early works to 1800
As those who pronounce their words with a thick enunciation are called
Barbarians, so foreigners, I mean those who were not Greeks, were
observed to pronounce their words in this manner. The term Barbarians
was therefore applied peculiarly to these people, at first by way of
reproach, as having a thick and harsh enunciation; afterwards the term
was used improperly, and applied as a common gentile term in
contradistinction to the Greeks. For after a long intimacy and
intercourse had subsisted with the Barbarians, it no longer appeared
that this peculiarity arose from any thickness of enunciation, or a
natural defect in the organs of the voice, but from the peculiarities of
their languages.
But there was in our language a bad and what might be called a barbarous
utterance, as when any person speaking Greek should not pronounce it
correctly, but should pronounce the words like the Barbarians, who, when
beginning to learn the Greek language, are not able to pronounce it
perfectly, as neither are we able to pronounce perfectly their
languages.
This was peculiarly the case with the Carians. For other nations had not
much intercourse with the Greeks, nor were disposed to adopt the Grecian
manner of life, nor to learn our language, with the exception of persons
who by accident and singly had associated with a few Greeks; but the
Carians were dispersed over the whole of Greece, as mercenary soldiers.
Then the barbarous pronunciation was frequently met with among them,
from their military expeditions into Greece; and afterwards it spread
much more, from the time that they occupied the islands together with
the Greeks: not even when driven thence into Asia, could they live
apart from Greeks, when the Ionians and Dorians arrived there.
Hence arose the expression, “to barbarize,” for we are accustomed to
apply this term to those whose pronunciation of the Greek language is
vicious, and not to those who pronounce it like the Carians.
We are then to understand the expressions, “barbarous speaking” and
“barbarous speakers,” of persons whose pronunciation of the Greek
language is faulty. The word “to barbarize” was formed after the word
“to Carize,” and transferred into the books which teach the Greek
language; thus also the word “to solœcize” was formed, derived either
from Soli or some other source.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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