Re: Etymology of "barbarian"


Mike Lyle wrote:
mb wrote:
Robert Bannister wrote:
..
I believe it originally came from Greek, and the Greeks may well have
said "varvar" rather than "baabaa", so I think the poor sheep have been
slandered. I won't mention "black sheep" in case I upset Ray Wise.

Obviously it did, and to Greeks of today the word is varvarous. Back
then, though, that "b" definitely was a stop but the sheep have been
slandered anyway. Greek has never been non-rhotic; no Greek sheep was
ever caught sounding "barr-barr" [...]

Ancient Greek sheep spelt their remarks "beta eta" (what on earth is
that in Kirshenbaum?).

It would take a particularly cocksure person to put reconstructed,
hypothetical sounds in any phonetic notation.

.