I think I've mentioned Slovak forms occasionally, though I
agree our coverage is unequal and somewhat unfair. Even
linguists can be biassed towards the "favourite daughters"
of each branch. If Sanskrit is used to represent Indic e.g.
in etymological arguments, the choice is at least partly
justified by the equation Sanskrit = literary Old Indic. But
nothing justifies using standard Lithuanian as the sole
representative of East Baltic (as if Latvian, let alone
Lithunian dialects, didn't exist or had nothing of interest
to contribute), or ignoring a major language like Slovak (or
minor but fascinating ones like Sorbian and Kashubian) when
discussing West Slavic. I'll do my best to mend my ways in
this respect. Of course Polish is my first language, and the
one about which I can offer first-hand information. If you
can do the same for Slovak, we'll all be delighted. No
dictionary can replace a native informant.
BTW. My personal experience is that comprehensibility
between Polish and Slovak (especially when complemented by
some body language) is rather high both ways. Only ordering
a meal may be a real problem, since many foodstuffs and
dishes have unrelated or false-friendly names. I say
"nales'nik" (pancake) and you say "palacinka" (pancake); I
say "lody" (ice cream) and you say "zmrzlina", etc.; but
fortunately we both pronounce "piwo/pivo" (beer) in the same
way. :)
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tomas Karasek" <TOMAS_KARASEK@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 12:24 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] gwen etymology
Do you know something about slovak language,I have joined
recently but by reading of mails i did not see anybody
writing about it.it makes me sad,cause there were mentioned
mostly all slavic l. but slovak l. not.
Tomas