Editing Barbarian (section)

==Etymology==
===Ancient Greece===
The [[Ancient Greek]] name {{lang|grc|βάρβαρος}} ({{tlit|grc|bárbaros}}) 'barbarian' was an [[antonym]] for {{lang|grc|πολίτης}} ({{tlit|grc|politēs}}) 'citizen', from {{lang|grc|πόλις}}  ({{tlit|grc|[[polis]]}}) 'city'. The earliest attested form of the word is the [[Mycenaean Greek]] {{lang|gmy|𐀞𐀞𐀫}}, {{tlit|gmy|pa-pa-ro}}, written in [[Linear B]] syllabic script.<ref>[http://www.palaeolexicon.com/default.aspx?static=12&wid=519 Palaeolexicon], Word study tool of ancient languages</ref><ref>Johannes Kramer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iDYObRmfLikC&dq=%22pa-pa-ro%22+Linear+B&pg=PA86 ''Die Sprachbezeichnungen 'Latinus' und 'Romanus' im Lateinischen und Romanischen''], Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1998, p.86</ref>

The Greeks used the term ''barbarian'' for all non-Greek-speaking people, including   the [[Egyptians]], [[Persian people|Persians]], [[Medes]] and [[Phoenicians]], emphasizing their otherness. According to Greek writers, this was because the language they spoke sounded to Greeks like [[gibberish]] represented by the sounds "bar..bar..;"  the alleged root of the word {{tlit|grc|bárbaros}}, which is an echomimetic or [[Onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] word. In various occasions, the term was also used by Greeks, especially the [[Athenian]]s, to deride other Greek tribes and states (such as [[Epirote]]s, [[Elean]]s, [[Boeotian]]s and [[Aeolic]]-speakers) and also fellow Athenians in a pejorative and politically motivated manner.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2319347 |title=The term '''barbaros''', ''"A Greek-English Lexicon"'' (Liddell & Scott), on Perseus |publisher=Perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=2018-07-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Delante Bravo|first=Chrostopher|title=Chirping like the swallows: Aristophanes' portrayals of the barbarian "other"|year=2012|isbn=978-1-248-96599-3|page=9|publisher=BiblioBazaar }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Baracchi|first=Claudia|title=The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle|year=2014|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-4411-0873-9|page=292}}</ref><ref>Siculus Diodorus, Ludwig August Dindorf, Diodori Bibliotheca historica – Volume 1 – Page 671</ref> The term also carried a cultural dimension to its dual meaning.<ref>Plutarch's "Life of Pyrrhos" records his apprehensive remark on seeing a Roman army taking the field against him in disciplined order: "These are not barbarians."[http://www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/greek2.html Foreigners and Barbarians (adapted from ''Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks'')] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629063551/http://www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/greek2.html |date=June 29, 2011 }}, The American Forum for Global Education, 2000. <blockquote>"The status of being a foreigner, as the Greeks understood the term does not permit any easy definition. Primarily it signified such peoples as the Persians and Egyptians, whose languages were unintelligible to the Greeks, but it could also be used of Greeks who spoke in a different dialect and with a different accent&nbsp;... Prejudice toward Greeks on the part of Greeks was not limited to those who lived on the fringes of the Greek world. The Boeotians, inhabitants of central Greece, whose credentials were impeccable, were routinely mocked for their stupidity and gluttony. Ethnicity is a fluid concept even at the best of times. When it suited their purposes, the Greeks also divided themselves into Ionians and Dorians. The distinction was emphasized at the time of the Peloponnesian War, when the Ionian Athenians fought against the Dorian Spartans. The Spartan general Brasidas even taxed the Athenians with cowardice on account of their Ionian lineage. In other periods of history the Ionian-Dorian divide carried much less weight."</blockquote></ref><ref>Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. ''Athens: Its Rise and Fall''. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. {{ISBN|1-4191-0808-5}}, pp. 9–10. <blockquote>"Whether the Pelasgi were anciently a foreign or Grecian tribe, has been a subject of constant and celebrated discussion. Herodotus, speaking of some settlements held to be Pelaigic, and existing in his time, terms their language 'barbarous;' but Mueller, nor with argument insufficient, considers that the expression of the historian would apply only to a peculiar dialect; and the hypothesis is sustained by another passage in Herodotus, in which he applies to certain Ionian dialects the same term as that with which he stigmatizes the language of the Pelasgic settlements. In corroboration of Mueller's opinion, we may also observe, that the 'barbarous-tongued' is an epithet applied by Homer to the Carians, and is rightly construed by the ancient critics as denoting a dialect mingled and unpolished, certainly not foreign. Nor when the Agamemnon of Sophocles upbraids Teucer with 'his barbarous tongue,' would any scholar suppose that Teucer is upbraided with not speaking Greek; he is upbraided with speaking Greek inelegantly and rudely. It is clear that they who continued with the least adulteration a language in its earliest form, would seem to utter a strange and unfamiliar jargon to ears accustomed to its more modern construction."</blockquote></ref> The verb {{lang|grc|βαρβαρίζω}} (''barbarízō'') in [[ancient Greek]] meant to behave or talk like a barbarian, or to hold with the barbarians.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3Dbarbari%2Fzw βαρβαρίζω], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref>

[[Plato]] (''Statesman'' 262de) rejected the Greek–barbarian dichotomy as a logical absurdity on just such grounds: dividing the world into Greeks and non-Greeks told one nothing about the second group. Yet Plato used the term barbarian frequently in his seventh letter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/seventh_letter.html |title=The Internet Classics Archive {{pipe}} The Seventh Letter by Plato |publisher=Classics.mit.edu |access-date=2018-07-12}}</ref> In [[Homer]]'s works, the term appeared only once (''[[Iliad]]'' 2.867), in the form {{lang|grc|βαρβαρόφωνος}} ({{lang|grc|barbarophonos}}, ‘of incomprehensible speech’), used of the [[Carians]] fighting for [[Troy]] during the [[Trojan War]]. In general, the concept of ''barbaros'' did not figure largely in archaic literature before the 5th century BC.<ref>Hall, Jonathan. ''Hellenicity'', p. 111, {{ISBN|0-226-31329-8}}. "There is at the elite level at least no hint during the archaic period of this sharp dichotomy between Greek and Barbarian or the derogatory and the stereotypical representation of the latter that emerged so clearly from the 5th century."</ref>  It has been suggested that the ‘barbarophonoi’ in the ''Iliad'' signifies not those who spoke a non-Greek language but simply those who spoke Greek badly.<ref>Hall, Jonathan. ''Hellenicity'', p. 111, {{ISBN|0-226-31329-8}}. "Given the relative familiarity of the Karians to the Greeks, it has been suggested that barbarophonoi in the Iliad signifies not those who spoke a non-Greek language but simply those who spoke Greek badly."</ref>

A change occurred in the connotations of the word after the [[Greco-Persian Wars]] in the first half of the 5th century BC. Here a hasty coalition of Greeks defeated the vast [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]]. Indeed, in the Greek of this period 'barbarian' is often used expressly to refer to Persians, who were enemies of the Greeks in this war.<ref>Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. ''Ancient Greeks West and East'', 1999, p. 60, {{ISBN|90-04-10230-2}}. "a barbarian from a distinguished nation which given the political circumstances of the time might well mean a Persian."</ref>
[[File:Barbarian prisoner MAN Napoli Inv6116.jpg|thumb|A [[Marmara Island#Etymology |preconnesian]] marble depiction of a barbarian. Second century AD.]]

===Ancient Rome===
[[File:Invasions of the Roman Empire 1.png|thumb|right|Routes taken by barbarian invaders during the [[Migration Period]], 5th century AD]]
[[File:Genghis Khan empire-en.svg|thumb|right|Routes taken by [[Mongol Empire|Mongol invaders]], 13th century AD]]

The Romans used the term ''barbarus'' for uncivilised people, opposite to Greek or Roman, and in fact, it became a common term to refer to all foreigners among Romans after Augustus age (as, among the Greeks, after the Persian wars, the Persians), including the Germanic peoples, Persians, Gauls, Phoenicians and Carthaginians.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dbarbarus barbarus], Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'', on Perseus</ref>

===Other cultures===
The Greek term ''barbaros'' was the etymological source for many words meaning "barbarian", including English ''barbarian'', which was first recorded in 16th century [[Middle English]].

A word ''barbara- (बर्बर)'' is also found in the [[Sanskrit]] of ancient India, with the primary meaning of "cruel" and also "stammering" (बड़बड़), implying someone with an unfamiliar language.<ref>[http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinput=barbara&direction=SE&script=HK&link=yes&beginning= Barbara  (entry)] SpokenSanskrit.de</ref><ref>S Apte (1920), [http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/AEScan/AEScanjpg/ae0167-foible.jpg Apte English–Sanskrit Dictionary], "Fool" entry, 3rd ed., Pune</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dLUKaou4KcMC A Sanskrit–English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages], Monier Monier-Williams (1898), Ernst Leumann, Carl Cappeller, pub. Asian Educational Services (Google Books)</ref> The Greek word ''barbaros'' is related to Sanskrit ''barbaras'' (stammering).<ref>Onions, C.T. (1966), edited by, The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, page 74, [[The Clarendon Press]], Oxford.</ref> This Indo-European root is also found in Latin ''balbutire / balbus'' for "stammer / stammering" (leading to Italian ''balbettare'', Spanish ''balbucear'' and French ''balbutier'') and Czech {{Lang|cs|brblat}} "to stammer".<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=barbarian&allowed_in_frame=0 Barbarian], Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper (2015)</ref> The verb ''baṛbaṛānā'' in both contemporary [[Hindi]] (बड़बड़ाना) as well as [[Urdu]] (بڑبڑانا) means 'to babble, to speak gibberish, to rave incoherently'.<ref>[https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%A1%E0%A4%BC%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%A1%E0%A4%BC%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE बड़बड़ाना] Wiktionary</ref>

In Aramaic, Old Persian and Arabic context, the root refers to "babble confusedly". It appears as ''barbary'' or in Old French ''barbarie'', itself derived from the Arabic ''Barbar'', ''[[Berbers|Berber]]'', which is an ancient Arabic term for the North African inhabitants west of Egypt. The Arabic word might be ultimately from Greek ''barbaria''.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Barbary&allowed_in_frame=0 Barbary], Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper (2015)</ref>

===English semantics===
[[File:Germaniae antiquae libri tres, Plate 17, Clüver.jpg|thumb|"[[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] warriors" as depicted in [[Philipp Clüver]]'s ''Germania Antiqua'' (1616)]]

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' gives five definitions of the noun ''barbarian'', including an obsolete [[Barbary]] usage.
* '''1.''' ''Etymologically'', A foreigner, one whose language and customs differ from the speaker's.
* '''2.''' ''Hist''. '''a.''' One not a Greek. '''b.''' One living outside the pale of the Roman Empire and its civilization, applied especially to the northern nations that overthrew them. '''c.''' One outside the pale of [[Christian civilization]]. '''d.''' With the Italians of the Renaissance: One of a nation outside of Italy.
* '''3.''' A rude, wild, uncivilized person. '''b.''' Sometimes distinguished from ''[[Savage (pejorative term)|savage]]'' (perh. with a glance at 2). '''c.''' Applied by the Chinese contemptuously to foreigners.
* '''4.''' An uncultured person, or one who has no sympathy with literary culture.
* †'''5.''' A native of Barbary. [See [[Barbary Coast]].] ''Obs''. †'''b.''' [[Barbary pirates]] & [[Barb horse|A Barbary horse]]. ''Obs''.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2009, 2nd ed., v. 4.0, Oxford University Press.</ref>
The ''OED'' ''barbarous'' entry summarizes the semantic history. "The sense-development in ancient times was (with the Greeks) 'foreign, non-Hellenic,' later 'outlandish, rude, brutal'; (with the Romans) 'not Latin nor Greek,' then 'pertaining to those outside the Roman Empire'; hence 'uncivilized, uncultured,' and later 'non-Christian,' whence 'Saracen, heathen'; and generally 'savage, rude, savagely cruel, inhuman.'"