11-11-2004, 03:54 PM
I PASSED YOUR COMMENTS ON AND HERE IS THE GREEK TEACHER'S REPLY:
The Greek word ???barbaros??? is very old. Herodotus used it 2400 years ago. It meant back then a ???foreigner??? or ???non-Greek speaker.??? According to EVERY dictionary I looked at the word barbarian is of Greek origin. That is point number one.
Secondly, ???How many languages sound like "Bar bar bar bar"? The Aramaic language was very widespread in those days, and to my understanding even the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian empires used the language to a certain degree, and was used abundantly from 700-350 B.C. The sound ???bar, bar, bar??? certainly does apply to Aramaic. Aramaic uses the word ???bar??? as a prefix to many words. You should know more than me that the Aramaic language uses the word ???bar??? in front of the names of many people. In front of peoples names would often include ???bar,??? or ???son of,??? as you wrote me. A Greek listening to these foreigners speaking would likely hear the word ???bar??? very often. It certainly does apply to Aramaic.
COMMENTS PLEASE.
The Greek word ???barbaros??? is very old. Herodotus used it 2400 years ago. It meant back then a ???foreigner??? or ???non-Greek speaker.??? According to EVERY dictionary I looked at the word barbarian is of Greek origin. That is point number one.
Secondly, ???How many languages sound like "Bar bar bar bar"? The Aramaic language was very widespread in those days, and to my understanding even the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian empires used the language to a certain degree, and was used abundantly from 700-350 B.C. The sound ???bar, bar, bar??? certainly does apply to Aramaic. Aramaic uses the word ???bar??? as a prefix to many words. You should know more than me that the Aramaic language uses the word ???bar??? in front of the names of many people. In front of peoples names would often include ???bar,??? or ???son of,??? as you wrote me. A Greek listening to these foreigners speaking would likely hear the word ???bar??? very often. It certainly does apply to Aramaic.
COMMENTS PLEASE.