PART
7 –
Ch.XLI.5
The
great Pelasgian empire
(The
Pelasgian language)
XLI.
5. The peregrine language.
The barbarian language was completely
different from the language so-called peregrine
(peregrinitas).
According to the ideas
of Roman authors, the barbarian language was a language which was not
grammatical, a rustic language spoken by the native populations of the other
provinces of
The peregrine language though was the
language of a people foreign of
Roman nationality.
The Greeks were not counted among the
Barbarians. They and their language were “peregrine”.
So, Quintilianus makes a distinction
between the rustic language and the peregrine language. He attributes the first
to the Barbarians, and the second to the Greeks (Inst. I. 5; XI. 3. 30).
Ovid (Trist. V. 10. 27) makes the same
separation between the Greeks (Graii) and the Barbarians (Barbara turba).
The same writes Plato: the Greeks are all from the same
family and related among themselves, but they are foreigners relative to the barbarians, not being of the same
people, genos othneion chai allotrion (Civitas. Lib. V. p. 97)
It is to be noted
that, according to Herodotus, the
Pelasgians were not part of the same ethnic family of the Greeks, and he
considered the language of the Pelasgians entirely different from that of the
Greeks (lib.