this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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[–] nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.works 55 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Is this a Hercules/Heracles joke?

[–] Perhyte@lemmy.world 108 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I believe so, but in addition it is also a "the original meaning of 'barbarian' is non-Greek person" joke.

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 56 points 2 years ago (2 children)

For the people who don’t get it: To the Greeks (who primarily spoke Greek and Latin,) Germanic and proto European languages (like old English) sounded funny. The Greeks joked that it sounded like “barbar barbar” which is basically the Greek version of “blah blah blah blah”. So the people who spoke those foreign languages got referred to as barbarians.

It was basically used as a pejorative. It was a way for Greeks to discriminate against non-Greeks.

[–] sundrei@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Babblearians.

[–] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago (3 children)

It’s technically Proto-Indo-European. PIE is the base language that later developed into most of the European languages. It’s a simple language that evolved into the various European languages as people spread out and groups became more isolated. Basically, as they became more isolated they formed their own unique dialects, which then became distinct languages.

PIE is believed to be the root language for Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Hindi, Urdu, and a handful of others.

[–] Justas@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 years ago

Yes, except it's not as simple as you think. It is heavily inflected and has a lot of cases, 8, I think.

I know this because I speak Lithuanian, which is the oldest living language and the one most similar to PIE.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 years ago

Your examples are a bit odd given the context. Spanish, French, and Italian developed from Latin (which you stated the Greeks spoke). English, German, and Scandinavian languages developed from Proto-Germanic. I'm assuming you didn't mean to imply that Latin wasn't a PIE language?

[–] gerusz@ttrpg.network 3 points 2 years ago

Greek is also Indo-European though.

[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Civilisations on the European continent before Europe became a concept.

[–] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

But is it a language? I only know of Proto Germanic and Proto Indo-European that would be relevant here but I’m not a linguist.

[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

proto European languages (like old English)

No, it's a category, and the two languages you mentioned would, I assume, fit into that category.

[–] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

That makes sense somewhat, although it would be a rather broad category.

[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

PIE was the language (or languages) the proto-indo-European peoples spoke during their processes of migration into Europe, the Middle East and South Asia (around 6-4k years ago).

So most of the languages from those regions, from Hindi, to Persian, to Greek and English are all PIE, as these are all descendants from the PIE peoples.

We can reconstruct it by analysing these modern languages, their recent ancestors etc. and compare them.

[–] lol3droflxp@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I know. However I was wondering what proto European was supposed to be.

[–] novibe@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Those would be the PIE that entered Europe, so after they split from the PIE that entered Iran and India (the Indo-Iranians).

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago

I love daily double jokes!

[–] RaineV1@kbin.social 38 points 2 years ago

I mainly took it as a joke on all the awful things that happen around Heracles. The DM is stopping the history buff from warning them.

[–] DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

I took it to mean the DM was going to start throwing all the Herculean labors at them, then have the characters wife accidentally poison him, so that he burns himself alive on his own pyre.

[–] AFallingAnvil@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

It's also a Greek tragedy so...that

[–] EunieIsTheBus@feddit.de 27 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Doesn't ”Barbarian“ mean ”Non-Greek“ which was used as an insult? What is a Greek Non-Greek

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

It means they speak another language. It's onomatopoeia for how they heard foreign languages bar bar bar, so they became the barbarians, those that speak bar bar.

[–] TwilightVulpine@kbin.social 21 points 2 years ago

Etymology aside, the Barbarian D&D class fits Heracles perfectly well

[–] aeronmelon@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] atocci@kbin.social 22 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] aeronmelon@lemm.ee 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A long time ago, I saw fan art of this show and was intrigued by the colored visors. I tried to find more information about the show without success. I've been looking for this one for a long time, thank you very much for such a quick response.

[–] atocci@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago

Oh wow, no problem! Glad I could help.