Strabo Geography 14.2.28

[28] When the poet says, ² we have no reason to inquire how it is that, although he knew so many barbarian tribes, he speaks of the Carians alone as “of barbarian speech,” but nowhere speaks of “barbarians.” Thucydides, ³ therefore, is not correct, for he says that Homer “did not use the term ‘barbarians’ either, because the Hellenes on their part had not yet been distinguished under one name as opposed to them”; for the poet himself refutes the statement that the Hellenes had not yet been so distinguished when he says, ^{4 5} And again, ⁶ Further, if they were not called “barbarians,” how could they properly be called a people “of barbarian speech?” So neither Thucydides is correct, nor Apollodorus the grammarian, who says that the general term was used by the Hellenes in a peculiar and abusive sense against the Carians, and in particular by the Ionians, who hated them because of their enmity and the continuous military campaigns; for it was right to name them barbarians in this sense. But I raise the question, Why does he call them people “of barbarian speech,” but not even once calls them barbarians? “Because,” Apollodorus replies, “the plural does not fall in with the metre; this is why he does not call them barbarians.” But though this case ⁷ does not fall in with metre, the nominative case ⁸ does not differ metrically from that of “Dardanians”: ^{9 10} So, also, the word “Trojan,” in ¹¹ Neither is he correct when he says that the language of the Carians is very harsh, for it is not, but even has very many Greek words mixed up with it, according to the Philip who wrote The Carica. ¹² I suppose that the word “barbarian” was at first uttered onomatopoetically in reference to people who enunciated words only with difficulty and talked harshly and raucously, like our words “battarizein,” “traulizein,” and “psellizein”; ¹³ for we are by nature very much inclined to denote sounds by words that sound like them, on account of their homogeneity. Wherefore onomatopoetic words abound in our language, as, for example, “celaryzein,” and also “clange,” “psophos,” “boe,” and “crotos,” ¹⁴ most of which are by now used in their proper sense. Accordingly, when all who pronounced words thickly were being called barbarians onomatopoetically, it appeared that the pronunciations of all alien races were likewise thick, I mean of those that were not Greek. Those, therefore, they called barbarians in the special sense of the term, at first derisively, meaning that they pronounced words thickly or harshly; and then we misused the word as a general ethnic term, thus making a logical distinction between the Greeks and all other races. The fact is, however, that through our long acquaintance and intercourse with the barbarians this effect was at last seen to be the result, not of a thick pronunciation or any natural defect in the vocal organs, but of the peculiarities of their several languages. And there appeared another faulty and barbarian-like pronunciation in our language, whenever any person speaking Greek did not pronounce it correctly, but pronounced the words like barbarians who are only beginning to learn Greek and are unable to speak it accurately, as is also the case with us in speaking their languages. This was particularly the case with the Carians, for, although the other peoples were not yet having very much intercourse with the Greeks nor even trying to live in Greek fashion or to learn our language—with the exception, perhaps, of rare persons who by chance, and singly, mingled with a few of the Greeks—yet the Carians roamed throughout the whole of Greece, serving on expeditions for pay. Already, therefore, the barbarous element in their Greek was strong, as a result of their expeditions in Greece; and after this it spread much more, from the time they took up their abode with the Greeks in the islands; and when they were driven thence into Asia, even here they were unable to live apart from the Greeks, I mean when the Ionians and Dorians later crossed over to Asia. The term “barbarize,” also, has the same origin; for we are wont to use this too in reference to those who speak Greek badly, not to those who talk Carian. So, therefore, we must interpret the terms “speak barbarously” and “barbarously-speaking” as applying to those who speak Greek badly. And it was from the term “Carise” that the term “barbarize” was used in a different sense in works on the art of speaking Greek; and so was the term “soloecise,” whether derived from Soli, ¹⁵ or made up in some other way. ¹⁶