Some scholars claim the word "barbarian" began in ancient Rome when visitors from other regions did not speak Latin, so Romans who could not understand them insisted that their talk only amounted to noise, like "bar-bar-bar."
These scholars ignore the reality that the current word for "beard" in Italian and other languages is "barba," and someone who trims facial hair is called a "barber."
Therefore, the thinking goes, a political or military opponent with facial hair is called a "barbarian," not because he has facial hair but because he talks funny.
These so-scholars either have not done their homework or they choose to remain ignorant.
A brief dictionary search shows nearly identical words for "beard" or "barba" in Italian, Bosnian, Catalan, Corsican, Croatian, Dutch, French, Frisian, Galician, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Ukrainian and Yiddish.
It follows that if the scholars are right about the babble, then all the languages just mentioned are only noises made by ignorant talkers.
Either that or the so-called scholars are just plain stupid.
By the way, the current English word "bizarre" is borrowed from the Basque language, and "skag" from the Danish.
Our language is a blend of many others, beginning with Anglo-Saxon, and includes Norman French, Brythonic, Gaelic, Latin, Greek, German, Italian, Spanish and many others, including Native American languages, Oriental and Middle East. Moreover, new words and usages are invented regularly. Ask anyone politician or advertising agent.
The job of a linguist is to describe what is, not to make rules on what should be. We leave that to the self-appointed grammarians.
These scholars ignore the reality that the current word for "beard" in Italian and other languages is "barba," and someone who trims facial hair is called a "barber."
Therefore, the thinking goes, a political or military opponent with facial hair is called a "barbarian," not because he has facial hair but because he talks funny.
These so-scholars either have not done their homework or they choose to remain ignorant.
A brief dictionary search shows nearly identical words for "beard" or "barba" in Italian, Bosnian, Catalan, Corsican, Croatian, Dutch, French, Frisian, Galician, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Ukrainian and Yiddish.
It follows that if the scholars are right about the babble, then all the languages just mentioned are only noises made by ignorant talkers.
Either that or the so-called scholars are just plain stupid.
By the way, the current English word "bizarre" is borrowed from the Basque language, and "skag" from the Danish.
Our language is a blend of many others, beginning with Anglo-Saxon, and includes Norman French, Brythonic, Gaelic, Latin, Greek, German, Italian, Spanish and many others, including Native American languages, Oriental and Middle East. Moreover, new words and usages are invented regularly. Ask anyone politician or advertising agent.
The job of a linguist is to describe what is, not to make rules on what should be. We leave that to the self-appointed grammarians.
No comments:
Post a Comment