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Did Pellasgians speak a single language?

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  Quote erton Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Did Pellasgians speak a single language?
    Posted: 12-Dec-2007 at 13:10
were the pre-helens tribes united from an unique language???
the time is the greatest enemy of the men
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  Quote Chilbudios Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Dec-2007 at 13:55
Probably not. Though many scholars tried to link them to various IE and non-IE languages, there were also scholars suggesting the name had other meaning than some ethnic designation.
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  Quote Flipper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Dec-2007 at 14:51
I agree with Chilbudios. I found an article on JSTOR some months ago explaining exactly the same thing. In some cases it is pointed towards Ionians, in other cases Aeolians, in other Luwians, in other Tyrhenians and the list goes on.

In other words you have possible references to different ethnicities. Maybe, they were various people (not one) that lived in some areas before the anatolian migrations.

I'll try to find the analysis and post it.


Edited by Flipper - 12-Dec-2007 at 14:59


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  Quote chicagogeorge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Jan-2008 at 01:21
M guess is that the term Pelasgian did not mean a single group of people, but the term probably referred to various peoples who were seen as aboriginal. Certain Hellenes were called Pelasgians, and even Pelasgians themselves were considered part of the Hellenes.

Dionysus of Halikarnassos "Roman Antiquities" 1.17.2.1

καὶ τὸ τῶν Πελασγῶν γένος Ἑλληνικὸν ἐκ Πελοποννήσου

translation:

for the Pelasgians too, were a Hellenic race originally from the Peloponnesus
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  Quote AuLoNa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Mar-2008 at 14:54
Quote:
Originally Posted by _Chicagogeorge & Olvios_
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Afterwards some of the Pelasgians who inhabited Thessaly, as it is now called, being obliged to leave their country, settled among the Aborigines and jointly with them made war upon the Sicels. It is possible that the Aborigines received them partly in the hope of gaining their assistance, but I believe it was chiefly on account of their kinship; for the Pelasgians, too, were a Greek nation originally from the Peloponnesus ...

There is no way, pelasgians to be branch of helenes(both mythical people),This is exactly the opposite case helenes are branch of pelasgians.

Herodotus Book 8 Urania
44 As for the Athenians, in the time when the Pelasgians occupied that which is now called Hellas, they were Pelasgians, being named Cranaoi, and in the time of king Kecrops they came to be called Kecropidai; then when Erechtheus had succeeded to his power, they had their name changed to Athenians; and after Ion the son of Xuthos became commander of the Athenians, they got the name from him of Ionians.

For this land formerly called Pelasgia then he continues

73. Now Peloponnesus is inhabited by seven races; and of these, two are natives of the soil and are settled now in the place where they dwelt of old, namely the Arcadians and the Kynurians

So Arcadians are not branch of helenes but natives.
And to confirm this he says:

57. What language however the Pelasgians used to speak I am not able with certainty to say. But if one must pronounce judging by those that still remain of the Pelasgians who dwelt in the city of Creston above the Tyrsenians, and who were once neighbours of the race now called Dorian, dwelling then in the land which is now called Thessaliotis, and also by those that remain of the Pelasgians who settled at Plakia and Skylake in the region of the Hellespont, who before that had been settlers with the Athenians, and of the natives of the various other towns which are really Pelasgian, though they have lost the name,--if one must pronounce judging by these, the Pelasgians used to speak a Barbarian language


and at the end he gives the conclusion

Herodotus (I, 57-58.)
The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me. It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, and at first was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied.
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  Quote Carpathian Wolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Jun-2008 at 00:14
Prehistoric Dacia:
 
 
Interesting. I havn't read through all of it. Some things I agree with, others I don't.
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  Quote gcle2003 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Jun-2008 at 11:20
Originally posted by Carpathian Wolf

Prehistoric Dacia:
 
 
Interesting. I havn't read through all of it. Some things I agree with, others I don't.
 

When studying the prehistoric times of the countries from the Carpathians and the Lower Danube, an ancient disappeared world, the cradle of the ante-Hellenic civilization, presents itself before our eyes. Behind the populations known in Greco-Roman antiquity under the name of Getae and Dacians, stretches back a long series of several thousand years, a buried history of some great events, whose importance had reached far beyond the horizon of this country, the history of a nation, genial, powerful and glorious, who, long before the Trojan times, had founded the first vast world empire, had founded the first cultural unity in Europe and had at the same time established a basis for the moral and material progress in western Asia and in north Africa.

 
Hmmm....
 
 
 
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  Quote Efraz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Jun-2008 at 12:59
Originally posted by chicagogeorge

M guess is that the term Pelasgian did not mean a single group of people, but the term probably referred to various peoples who were seen as aboriginal.


This is correct. And solely makes it useless to research a single language for Pelasgians.
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  Quote Vorian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Jun-2008 at 16:56
Pelasgians were Illyrians of course LOL


On topic, it's not possible to research for a Pelasgic language since they didn't have writing. We only have traces of foreign words in Greek language
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  Quote Carpathian Wolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Jun-2008 at 07:24
I havn't read through all of it I must admit but it is interesting the points he brings up about the Pelasgian language being the basis for latin, a proto latin language. I'm not sure if he touches upon the Greek/Latin similarities yet however.
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  Quote Efraz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Jun-2008 at 08:52
Originally posted by Vorian


On topic, it's not possible to research for a Pelasgic language since they didn't have writing. We only have traces of foreign words in Greek language


Greetings my friend.

This is not very true. Some times Greeks referred to Luwians as pelasgians too. So Luwians did have writing. The safest way is to say pelasg is a term in Greek close to "aborigine".
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  Quote opuslola Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Nov-2009 at 16:40
I would venture to guess that the Pelasgians, and associated words is taken from "Pelagic", and merely means something like "People of the Sea?", or "Sea People", etc. A term that could describe the Punics (Carthaginians) and the Venets / Venetians, etc. Traders / fishermen would fit the bill for any of them. Any group who had access to good salt deposits or production facilities and lived near the sea, would soon have learned that salted fish (as well as other items) can extend the areas food supply and as well become a product to export.
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/history/
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  Quote opuslola Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Jul-2010 at 17:10
Since no has answered my post above, maybe I should actually answer the question that originated this little thread!

Yes, where ever these sea based people traded, they had to have a common language of trade! You have to understand that these people and the Phoenicans are one and the same!

Or the Pelasgians were a people much like the so called Vikings?

Or one of the other peoples who lived via piracy and trade, whether in foodstuff, valuables, or slaves!

But, "Peoples of the Sea" they were!
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/history/
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