PART
7 –
Ch.XLI.15 (I – II)
The
great Pelasgian empire
(The
Pelasgian language)
XLI.
15. The two Pelasgian dialects, Latin and Arimic.
I.
Even from very remote
prehistoric times, the barbarian language of the Pelasgians was divided in two
main dialects, one Latin, or “prisc” (TN – ancient) Latin, and the other Arimic, meaning “prisc” Roman, as the
Pelasgian people was also divided in two large and extended families, one of
the “Latinii betrani” (TN – ancient
Latinii), the other of the Arimii.
These two Pelasgian
peoples, issued from the same national trunk, had lived in prehistoric times in
entirely different geographical and social conditions.
Both these peoples
were distinguished one from the other by their physical temperament and their
moral character. Even the forms of their language varied in many respects.
In ancient
geographical sources, the ancient
Latinii, or barbarian, figure
under the name Abarimon(es), Abii, Leucoarimani, and white
Barbarians, and they appear generally as a population from the northern
parts of the ancient world.
In their migrations
from
A second group from the family of the
ancient Latinii passed over the southern parts of Scythia, occupied for some
time the plains and mountains of Galitia, Silezia, Moravia and Bohemia, then
continued to advance towards the western parts. From these barbarian Latinii
derives the name of the Lechii (Polonii),
as well as various topical names of ethnic origin, which we find scattered
through those lands, under the forms Latten,
Leiten, Lety, Liten, Ladzin, Letow, Litow, etc.
Finally, a third branch of the great migration
current of the barbarian Latinii passed over the eastern parts of Dacia towards
the Balkan peninsula, and occupied for some time the regions from the lower
Danube, especially the northern parts of lower and upper Mesia.
Their last national
king in those times was, as Greek traditions tell us, Telephus, also called Latinus
(Jornandes, c. 9; Suidas, see Latinoi).
These Latinii from
the north of Thrace have with Homer
the name Abii; in the traditions of
the Romanian people they figure as “Latini
de cei betrani” (Corcea, Balade,
h.81 / TN – Latini of the old ones), or as simply Latini in the traditions of the Serbs and the Bulgarians (Kanitz, Reise in Sud-Serbien und
Nord-Bulgarien, p. 33).
After a certain
time, a part of these barbarian Latinii from the lower Danube continued their
migration towards west. The causes are not known. Some tribes crossed the Alps
(to this current of migration belong the Latinii
from Switzerland) into the Italic peninsula, where after prolonged battles with
various Arimic nations, which had occupied the upper parts of Italy, settled
definitively in Latium (Prisci Latini,
Latini veteres, Albenses populi).
These ancient
Latinii figure in Romanian epic poems as a northern people, from the “edges of
the seas”. They are shown with gigantic bodily shapes, with a big head, wide forehead
and chest, big eyes, long, thick arms and legs (Hasdeu, Col. lui Traian, 1882, p. 620), and in the traditions of
the populations from the Balkan peninsula they appear as a generation of
giants.
Virgil presents in a similar way the Latinii from
ancient Latium. They had a larger stature than the other people, “immani
corpore”, and their youths were characterized by wearing a blond beard (Aen. X.
312, 324; VIII, 330).
The dialect of
these barbarian Latinii had stayed closer to its origin, in regard to the
system of its consonants, as well as the form of its terminations. The idiom of
the ancient Latinii was sweeter, more harmonious, but did not have the same
quick movement in its circulation, and the same precision in the expressing of
thoughts which the Arimic dialect had.
As results from the
traces which have been preserved to this day in the national language of the Litvanii, the barbarian Latinii had
masculine terminations in as and us, and often used s instead of r. As
examples we shall quote here the following words from the Litvan language: alejus,
oleum; angelos, angelus; ausis, auris; ausza, aurora; devas,
deus; drasus, trux; grazus, pulcher; jaunas, juvenis; laukas,
campus, locus; macnus, potens,
fortis; medus, mel; midus, medus; muras, murus; pirmas,
primus; senas, senex; vynas, vinum; vyras, vir (Schleicher,
Litauische Grammatik, 1856).
II.
The second dialect
of the Pelasgian language was the Arimic,
which we call prisc Roman.
To the family of
the Arimii belonged the inhabitants of the north of the lower Istru, ‘Arimoi,
as Homer and Hesiodus called them; the Scythii,
previously called Aramaei; the
ancient inhabitants of barbarian Germania, the Herminonii and Alamannii;
the Aremoricii from Aremorica or
Aquitania and the north-western corner of Galitia; the Volcae Arecomicii from between the Pyrenees and the Rhodan; the
older populations of Italy, and finally the Turditanii, Tarraconii and Lusitanii
from Hispania.
The Arimii differed
from the Latins by their physical type and by their livelier temperament. The
Arimii had a darker hair and skin color, and were not as tall of stature as the
Latinii. They were more energetic in their actions, more used with weapons, and
with more advanced political ideas.
The separation of
the Pelasgian nation in two large ethnic families had been also known to the
ancients. According to Hesiodus
(Theog. v. 1011 seqq), the genealogy of the Latinii and Arimii was the
following: Circe, the sister of king Aietes of Colchis, had two sons with
Ulysses, Agrius (Rusticus, Teranul,
TN – the peasant), called Romanus by
Plutarc, and Latinus. These two names represented two large families and two
main dialects of the same nation.
The characteristic particularities
of the Arimic dialect were especially the following:
1. An A was added to the beginning of a
number of words, especially those which began with R.
2. The endings of
words were shortened, leaving out the final consonants m and s, sometime also
the preceding vowel u.
3. The final
syllable re was eliminated from the
infinitive of verbs.
4. Finally, the
Arimii used the letter R a lot in
their words.
We give the
following examples about the adding of A
at the beginning of words:
- Ethnic names: Arimi with Homer and Hesiodus; Aramaei (Scythi); Alamani or Aramani, part
of the ancient inhabitants of barbarian Germany, called also Arimani and Aremani in the upper parts of Italy, Aremori or Aremorici in
Gallia; Archemorium and Archemonium, the name of a suburb of
Rome; Ariminium, an ancient city of
Umbria, today Rimini; Orchomenos (= Archomenos), two ancient cities, one in
Beotia, the other in Arcadia; Ariman
(Ahriman), Typhon’s co-name; Arimanius,
an epithet of Mithra (Prometheus) and of Mars; Aremulus, an ancient king from Alba.
- Geographical
names: Anigrus, river in the
Peloponnesus; Asilba, castle in
Thrace; Amurgos and Murgos, an
island near the Hellespont; Asarath,
river in Africa; Arius, the regions
of India.
- We find the same
addition of A in the language of the
Aromanians of today, descendants of
the ancient inhabitants of Thessaly, of the Epirus and of Macedonia.
We give the
following examples: afiresc,
Romanian firesc; agonesc, gonesc; alichesc, lipesc; alatrat, latrat; alaudat,
laudat; areu, reutate, nenorocire; aricori, frig, recore; aris, ris; ariu, riu; Aroman,
Roman; aros, rosu; arug, rug; aspart, spart; aumbra,
umbra; avenat, venat. To which we
also add the Thracian word ababa,
baba, from the times of Maximinus.
- The same A has been also preserved in some
Romanian words from the Carpathians and the lower Danube: abiruire, invingere; aboare,
boare; abuba, buba, achindie, chindie; acioie, cioie; acufund,
cufund; alatrat, latrat; alauta, lauta, Armanca, Romanca.
- In the Romagnol
dialect from Italy: aglion, Italian
leon; alor, lauro; amsure, misurare; aramse, ramassare; arcade,
ricadere; arfat, rifatlo; arpos, riposo; arvena, ruina (Mattioli,
Vocab. Romagnolo-italiano, Imola, 1879; Torquati,
Origine della l. ital. p. 34, 45, 48).
Another
particularity of the barbarian Arimic dialect was the shortening of the
endings, especially the omitting of final consonants m and s.
The consonant m at the end of the words, as Quintilianus tells us, was a letter
which in the Latin language too “was very little pronounced” (Inst. Ix. 4; XII.
10), meaning a silent sound.
As for the final s, Cicero
writes: “In ancient times, omitting the s
of the final syllable was considered an elegant mode of speech, today though
such a speech is for us rustic, ordinary (Orat. c. 48). And the whole final
syllable of the words is often omitted. To this mode of speech refer the words
of Quintilianus: curabit magister ne
extremae syllabae inercidant (Inst. XI. 3; Cicero,
Orat. c. 12).
- In the Romagnol
dialect from Italy, in which have been preserved to this day many
particularities of the ancient Arimic dialect, neither final o, nor u exists.
As example: an, Italian anno; anzel, angelo; bon,
buono; braz, braccio; camp, campo; car, caro; corv, corvo; fer, ferro; fiol, figlio; fom, fumo;
fus, fuso; mort, morto; om, uomo; ont, unto; orb, orbo; oss, osso; ors, orso; prez, prezzo (Mattioli,
Voc. Romagnolo-italiano, 1879).
- The same
shortening of the endings is also present in the Romanian language, in the Armerine
dialect as well as in various words which had once belonged to the local
“Roman” language of Gallia: Rom. an,
Mrom. an, Arm. an, Prov. an, Fr. an; Rom. brat, Mrom. b’rat, Istr.
brat, Arm. brazz; Rom. camp, Picard
and Prov. camp.
We arrive now to the
elimination of the final syllable re from
the infinitives of verbs.
In the Romanian
language, the infinitives have two forms, one with re and the other without:
“a cantare” and “a canta”, “a vedere” and
“a vede”, etc.(TN – today there is
only the second form).
On the territory of
Italy of today, the form of the short infinitive (without re) is found in the Piemontes, Driulan, Romagnol and Armerine
dialects.
- Piemontes, with
three conjugations: ame, Ital.
amare; vede, vedere; cusi, cucire.
- Friulan; ama, Ital. amare; teme, temere; sinti,
sentire.
- Romagnol: ame, Ital. amare; vde, vedere, cusi,
cucire.
- Armerine: are, Romanian ara.
In fact, a general
use of eliminating re from the
infinitives of verbs has existed until late on the territory of Italy, an
important linguistic phenomenon, observed by the distinguished literati G. Torquati on the base of the Italian
folk poetry (Origine d. lingua italiana, p. 25).
This shortened form
of the infinitives must have doubtless existed also in the popular or Arimic
language of ancient Italy.
Quintilianus writes: The teacher must take care that
the students he instructs also pronounce the last syllables of the words
“Curabit magister ne extemae
syllabae intercidant” (Inst. XI. 3).
This mode of
speaking was of barbarian origin. “The barbarians” writes Isidorus (Orig. I. 31) “do not pronounce the Latin words in their
entirety”.
Another
particularity, characteristic of the ancient Arimic dialect, was the frequent
use made of the resounding letter r.
This letter was often used instead of the consonants d, l, n and s.
In the present
study though, we shall speak only about the rotacism of n, which had played once a very significant role, not only in the spoken
language, but also in the literary church language of the Romanian people.
About the replacing
of n with r in the Arimic dialect of the Pelasgians we have some examples
even from the Homeric times.
Gargaros is called in the Iliad the highest peak of
Ida mountain, but its original form was Gargan-us.
The word Tartaros in the times of
the theogony had the meaning of “pater” (Titan), Romanian tatan, in church books tatanru
and tataru. From the same form
derives Teutarus, the name of a
Scythian, contemporary with Hercules.
The Getae from the lower Danube especially,
used the letter r a lot in their
speech.
The poet Ovid called the language of the Getae: vox fera, vox ferina, Geticus murmur,
Barbara verba, rotacised words with which he characterized in an indirect
way the rough and resounding dialect of the Getae.
- The changing of n into r in the national language of the Getae is especially present in
names of localities on the Danube, as well as from the eastern and northern
parts of Dacia, like: Laedenata and Laederata, near Viminatium in lower
Mesia (Not.); Ratiaria and Ratiarna (Ptol); Durostonum and Durostorum (Ptol.),
Durostona with Jornandes; Dinigothia and Dirigothia near the mouths of Siret (Not., Tab.); Noviodunum and Noviodurum (Itin.); Carodunum
and Carodurum (Ptol.), Ermerium and Urgum, two localities on the northern parts of Dacia, names which
correspond to the forms Armerium and
Armenium, and Ung, today a city and county near Maramures.
- On the territory of the Scythians: Achani and Acharni, name of people (Steph. Byz.); Arima, in the language of the Scythians meant “one”, a word in
which r represented the original
sound n.
- In Pannonia, the
same oscillation between the sounds n
and r is found in the names of a
number of localities: Vindomana and Vindomara (Itin., Not.); Bononia and Bonoria; Carnunto and Carunto (Itin.); Acimincum and Acimircum (Not.);
Tauruno and Taururo (Not., Ptol.).
- In Dalmatia: “u t pureremu” instead of “puneremus”
(Isidorus, Orig. I. 31)
- In Germania: Varduli instead of Vanduli,
Veredi instead of Venedi (Arch.-ep. Mitlh. IX. 8).
- In Gallia: Verodunum and Veroduro, Augustodunum
and Augustodurum (Itin., Tab.); Cenomani and Ceromani (Not.); Menapii and Merapes, Ursanienses and
Ursarienses (Not.); Aremorica and Aremonica, Gaura mors
instead of mons (Itin. Hier.).
- In Britannia:
Cohors quarta Lergorum instead of Lingonum (Not.); Celunno and Cilurno
(Rav., Not.); Brittonum and Brittorum; Vindogladia and Virdocladia
(Itin.).
- In Hispania: Urgi and Unci (Itin.).
- In the province
Argos from the Peloponnesus, Lyncea
and Lyrcea, the name of a village
(Paus.).
- In Asia Minor, in the regions inhabited by
Pelasgians: Comagena and Comagera, Dardaxina and Dardaxira,
Marandana and Marandara (Itin.).
- In the Phrygian language chlouros, Greek chlounos,
a type of gold (Hesych.).
Everywhere the
letter r was a sound characteristic
for the Pelasgian Arimic language (Henr.
Steph. see Barbarophonos).
- In the Italic peninsula,
exactly as in the other provinces inhabited by Pelasgians, the Arimic dialect
was the most widely spread [1].
[1. Quintilianus, Inst. I. 5: Pollio deprehendet in Livio
Patavinitatem, licet omnia Italica pro
Romanis habeam. In the times of Ennius, the idiom spoken and written was
called “Romana”, not “Latina”, Romane
loqui (Charisius, Inst. Gramm.
II; Keil, Gramm. Lat. I. 200)].
This dialect,
beginning from the Alps and ending in Sicily, formed the national usual idiom,
which the Roman literati called: lingua
quotidiana or usualis, romana lingua, vox romani generis (Cicero,
De orat. III. 12. 44), rustica romana
lingua, rustica vox et agrestis
(Ibid. III. 12), rustica asperitas (Suetonius, Gramm. c. 24), rusticus sermo, plebeius sermo, sermo vulgaris,
usualis sermo, quotidianus sermo (quo cum amicis, conjugibus, liberis, servis
loquamur), vetus lingua, sermo antiquus (Cicero, De orat. III. 11. 42), barbarus
sermo, Latina pessima.
As for the purely
Latin dialect in Italy, this has always been limited to the province of Latium.
The changing of n into r in the popular language of Italy can be followed back to the most
ancient times of the Roman state. The following examples will clearly
demonstrate this statement.
- Remoria, the name of the place on the
Aventine where Remus wanted to build the citadel of Rome, according to Festus; Remonia with Plutarc, Remona with Ennius.
- Remores, the name of the people who had
the same qualities as Remus, according to Aur. Victor. It is a rotacised form
of Remones.
- Remuria, in Roman cult was the feast
when offerings to the ancestors were made. The word is formed from “Remores”.
- Remurina, an ancient Roman divinity,
probably the personification of the feast day “Remuria”.
- Archemorium and Archemonium, an ancient suburb of Rome.
- Crustumerium and Crustumini, Sabine city and people.
- Perpenna and Perpena, n. pr.
- In classical
Latin language, carmen derives from canimen = car(i)men, from the verb cano, a canta (TN – to sing).
- According to Varro,
the word moerus, mur (TN – wall),
derived from moenus.
Assir in ancient Latin language meant “sanguen”, blood (Festus). The word is
not Latin, but Arimic, with a pre-posed a,
and n changed into r, like sangre in the Spanish language from sanguinem = sanguirem.
The ancients also
said femur and femen, groma instead of gnoma, aeneus and aereus, siris and sirit instead of sinas, sinat (Livy, lib. I. 32), also sera
= sinas in the song of the Arvali Brothers.
Populonia and Populoria
was a maritime city of Etruria (Itin. Ant.). Egina and Egira were the
names of an island between Italy and Sicily (Itin. Hier.; Livy, lib. I. 32).
The letter r, Plato writes, indicates movement and
asperity. Because of this, the Greek authors called the use of this letter in
speech schlerotes, asperitas (Cratylus,
c. 41).
Certainly Cicero
characterized the popular dialect of Italy as rustica asperitas for the same reasons.
In the poems of Virgil we find a number of examples in
which he imitates the folk idiom, by repeating the letter r:
Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro…
Ergo aegre rastris terram rimantur
(Georg. I. 494; III. 534)).
Aurunei, Rutuliuqe
serunt et vomere duros
Exercent collis atque horum
asperrima pascunt (Aen. XI. 318).
Seneca writes (Epist. ad Lucill. 114): “The words
of men were such as their lives were”.
This rotacised
dialect had been preserved for a long time in the homes of Roman nobility.
The poet Persius tells us that at the doors of
ancient Roman families still resounded in his times the doggish letter r (Sat. I. 109).
The Roman literati,
pupils of a severe Latin-Greek school, had always a particular aversion of the
sound r, because of which this
consonant had been eliminated from a number of Latin words.
Examples: pejero = perjuro; crebesco =
crebresco. Varro says “R exclusum propter levitatem (L. L. V,
133), meaning that the letter r had
been excluded in order to ease pronunciation.
“Reor”, says Quintilianus, is a horrible word (Inst. VIII. 30); and in another
place he writes: instead of the letter r,
with which Demosthenes had to struggle so much, the Greeks adopted the letter l, which are strong letters also in our
language (Inst. I. 11).
We shall reproduce
here a few examples from the Voronet Codex, written around the beginning of the
16th century: adura, aduna;
arira, arina; betrarii, batranii; cunteri, conteni; curura, cununa; dumereca,
dumineca; gerure, genune; giure, giune; irema, inima; iremire, inemile; lumira,
lumina (in mierurata lui lumira); Luri, Luni; menciuri, minciuni;
netirut, netinut; omeri, omeni; rugira, rugina; rusul = nusul, insul; spureti,
spuneti; supureti, supuneti; striirii, strainii; turerecu, intunerec; urul,
unul, etc.
This literary
church language was called in the 18th century “pe Rumania”, meaning
the Rumanian rustic or Arimic.
From this mode of
speech, with n changed into r, have been preserved to this day in
the Romanian language some ancient traces like: arin, anin; irima, irma, inima; marunt, Lat. minutum; musuroiu, musunoiu, rata and nata; rerunchi and renunchi,
rencheza, necheza, Lat. hinnire; rendurea,
rendunea; serin, senin; verin, venin.
This phonetic
phenomenon appears especially as a characteristic particularity of the Romanian
dialect of Istria, evident proof that at the time when the Romanian groups from
Istria had migrated from the lower Danube (see Ch. XXVI.6), the rotacised
dialect was almost generally spoken by the Romanian people from the lower
Danube.
The origin of this
idiom on the territory of Dacia predates Roman conquest. As we saw above, the
changing of n into r existed in the barbarian language of
the Pelasgians even in Homeric times, while in the Italic peninsula it existed
even in the legendary times of the Roman state.
The substitution of
the intervocalic n with r is therefore not a specific Romanian
rotacism, or of the Romanian language from the Middle Age, as the literate
Hasdeu believed, but is a phonetic particularity inherited from the ancient
dialect of the Arimii.
Little by little
though, the rotacism of n had
disappeared almost completely not only in the western parts of
We ask now: how can
be explained this linguistic phenomenon from a historical point of view?
Because in the life
of mankind, nothing happens without some predetermined cause.
Our answer is that
the Arimic dialect, or rotacised,
must have been at some time strongly mixed with the not rotacised dialect, or
the barbarian Latin.
This reestablishing
of the original sound n was due not
to a spontaneous revival of n, as
Hasdeu believed, but to the influence of the great invasion of the Leuco -
Arimanii or Abii, who had descended on Europe following the footsteps of the
Arimic current.