Barbarr

[Arpa]

In a previous post (see Armenia and Eu) I alluded to the possibility of the Armenian word "barbar", vernacular speech, dialect may have derived from the Greek "barbaros/barbarian".

Boy! Was I wrong!

No! I was right!

See for yourself.

 

We seem to agree, as most other sources that the word "barbarian/barbaros" was coined by the Greeks to distinguish all those whose language sounded like "brbrbrbr" to them. (An aside; Why do we then refer to unintelligible languages as- "It sounds Greek to me"!)

After I made the assumption I decided to ask Mr. Ajarian and I got the shock (as you will see) of a lifetime.

I first looked up "barbarr"(I spell it with the double r at the end to indicate that the second r is the hard kind, i.e. Ra. µ³ñµ³é while "barbaros" is spelled both with the softer r µ³ñµ³ñáë. The monograph for "barbarr" was very short and succinct, it simply refers one to go to "bal" which in turn is quite lengthy and it contends to be the root word for many Armenian words among which "bas", "bam", "ban" and finally "barr". We know what "ban" and "barr" are, the latter means "word" just as the former, except that "ban" is often used as a synonym to the Greek "logos". The main theme of the monohraph is based on that "bal" was originally used to mean "khosil", "asel" to speak, to say. As to "bam" and "bas", one will not recognize them except in "bambasel/bambasanq", to gossip, to say bad things about someone. Mr. Ajarian goes further citing more examples and tying the word to other languages, he even goes far enough to connect it to "barr". He goes as far as tracing the origin of the word to, what else? Sanskrit, i.e. Jenats Ashkharh, which should be interpreted as what is now known as Kashmir. (We may want to remember that we mentioned this in reference to the origin of the Mamikonians, that Khorenatsi alludes to them from the Jenats Ashkharh which some would like it to read Mongolia.)

 

Not finding any hard reference of "barbarr" to "barbrian/barbaros" I decided to look up "barbaros". Surprise! Surprise! Not only does Ajarian reassert the popular belief that it was indeed coined by the Greeks to describe those whose language sounded like gibberish, i.e. brbrbrbr, he also defines the term to mean alien, other people (otarazgi) and savage (vayreni), it is also suggested that nonGreeks in turn called the Greeks "barbarian" as the latter's language was unintelligible to them. Once again "does it sound Greek to you"?. He goes further to suggest that the original word may have come from the Bsabylonian "barbaru" to mean "alien", or, once again, surprise? from the Sanskrit "barbaras" to mean stutterer (kakaz).

 

Here is the biggest surprise of them all.

 

In closing Mr. Ajarian says this;гۻñ»Ý µ³éÇ ³ñÙ³ïÁ ¹ÝáõÙ ¿ µ³é, µ³ñµ³é. гۻñ»ÝÇó ¿ ÷á˳ñ»³É Ûáõݳñ»ÝÁ, áñÇó ¿É ³Ýó»É ¿ ÙÇõë É»½áõÝ»ñÇÝ£ Quting the Schroeder Thesaurus, here is the translation; "The root of the Armenian word (barbaros) is derived from 'barr', 'barbarr' which the Greeks may have borrowed from us and spread to other languages"

 

[Arpa]

So!

In the light of the above, assuming that Armenians were the first to coin the word "barbarr", barbrian/barbaros who among us is the real barbaros? Those who speak the unintelligible Yerevan barbarr, the ones who speak the Polso barbarr, the Glendale barbarr or the New York one?

 

Of the most unintelligible of the provincial barbarrs the Artsakh one and the Musayi Ler one must be the real reason for the term "barbaros". Even I can't understand them.

 

No, no I know, I am the most "barbaros" as my barbarr/dialect seem to be the most unintelligible to most.:)

 

Barbarbarbarbar!!

[bellthecat]

Barbarr ...wasn't that the name of an elephant in a cartoon program? Some sort of eastern-european thingy I think. When I was a kid it really used to annoy me for some reason I now cannot remember - but if ever an elephant needed to be turned into piano keys then it was that one.