quote:
Originally posted by popcornvendor on 01-24-2001 09:21 PM
hehehehehe *acts suspicious* its the french's fault! i know its them!!
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Actually, the term «barbarian» didn;t have the meaning it has acquired in the modern days.
In Ancient Greece everyone who didn't speak greek was a barbarian and that didn;t mean he was a uncivilized.
Because greek was so widely used, the greeks who heard other languages and could not understand them labeled those people «barbarians» (or varvarians) because they made sounds (that sounded like) var var var
True!
Nothing to do with the later meaning
