Open AccessLanguage, vocal organs and barbarophonoi
Author(s) -
Pedro Redondo Reyes
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
hvmanitas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2183-1718
pISSN - 0871-1569
DOI - 10.14195/2183-1718_78_2
Subject(s) - onomatopoeia , linguistics , meaning (existential) , term (time) , musical , history , psychology , art , literature , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , psychotherapist
Strabo (14.2.28), commenting on the Homeric term barbarophonoi, upholds the onomatopoeic origin of barbaros and outlines an history of its usage, which goes from the meaning of “speak roughly” to the one of “mispronunciation” of Greek. In order to interpret the passage, pertinent texts from the medical and acoustic-musical are commented; concluding thus, that Strabo knows the reflections on the voice and language that lead him to a definition of barbaros based, mainly, on a linguistic criterion.