Right/wrong

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fortuna11111" wrote:

>>>> You know that Alex likes to reject Romance etymologies of lots
>>>> of perfectly Romance-looking words in Romanian, and he smells
>>>> Thracian and Dacian influence all about the place. Is he right
>>>> :-)?
>>>
>>> What do you think?
>>
>> Don't tell anybody, but I think he's COMPLETELY wrong.
>
> Piotr, the whole big things is, you are free to think and he is
> free as well. I would not rule his words out simply because they
> sound exotic, while I find your comments also very useful.

You missed the point. His pseudo-etymologies are to be ruled out
not because they sound exotic but because they don't pass the first
test of critical linguistic analysis. And that's because they are
not supported by a minimum amount of method and knowledge. Anybody
may have his own personal opinion (a basical statement I constantly
repeated on another list; by now Alex should be perfectly aware of
that), but relevant opinions belong to people who know deeper the
issues they discuss.

> My personal opinion is, many things concerning the Balkans will
> need a redefinition [...]

Like that "Bulgars were Iranians" stuff?! No, in science the first
step is to get a civilized professional knowledge about what has
already been advocated and to get familiar with methodology. Only
afterwards one is entitled to produce new theories if needed. One
has not to reinvent the wheel every 30 years or so.

Cheers,
Marius Iacomi