Re: a discussion on OIT: attention moderator

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
> >
> Unfortunately, that ideology might be what upholds the group of the
> proponent in question, and giving up the belief will make it crash.
> Look what happened in the socialist block after they gave up the
> doctrine. It's all more complicated than you would like to believe.
> Linguistics is a dangerous thing. Most East European nations owe their
> existence to it.
>
>
> Torsten
>

Could you please explain what you mean by saying that most East
European nations owe their existence to linguistics? I have always
understood linguistics to mean the study of language -- how can that
figure in the history of East European languages? Obviously you are
referring to something else such as linguistic identity perhaps, but I
can't figure out what you mean. Could you explain?

Andrew