I'm sure you know your mother. You
certainly know both your grandmothers as well, and some or all of your
great-grandmothers. But do you know any of your ancestors back in the second
century, or even, say, three hundred years ago? Why do the
Albanians/Romanians (actually, not _all_ Albanians/Romanians) believe that they
descend from the Illyrians/Dacians? Because they "remember" their descent
in any real-world sense? Because their descent is somehow documented?
Or merely because they have been told so? Who told them so? On what grounds? Was
it solid evidence or just wishful thinking? I'd say that the results of
linguistic research are more objective and therefore preferable to this kind of
hearsay "evidence".
All nations have their myths, and the
origins myth is often particularly important to them. People treat is as a very
deep element of their identity and react very strongly if anybody questions it
(often because it has always been questioned by their traditional
foes). National myths are invoked to justify various historical claims, and
provide people with a "glorious past" (which may be a comfort in less glorious
times).
When it was brilliantly demonstrated, back
in 1770, that Hungarian was related to Finnish and Saami, many Hungarian
intellectuals were deeply offended or even patriotically enraged rather than
applaud János Sajnovics's genius (of which they had every reason to be proud as
his compatriots). It took a long time for them to come to terms with the truth,
but there are still some self-styled "linguists" who reject Finno-Ugric and
prefer to litter the Internet with demonstrations of Hungarian being a
descendant of Sumerian. For some people the desire to have a glorious past is
apparently stronger than reason. I don't want to insinuate that the hypothesised
connection between Illyrian and Albanian, or Dacian Latin and Romanian is
equally nonsensical. It isn't; it's just less likely, in _my_ opinion, than some
alternative hypotheses -- those that I have presented here. I am
only trying to say that popular beliefs are not reliable
historical evidence. "Vox populi, vox dei" in politics, perhaps, but not in
science.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Proto Romanian Cradle
Piotr, somehow i do not understang a thing. The albanians
claim to be the old illirians, the romanians claim to be the old dacians. For
both of then, these claims are refutted by "lingvists". Dont you think they are
more right as a lingvist? I mean, I dont need you to tell me who my mother is, I
must know it normally. I guess here is something else. There are some
lingvistics presumptions and rules who will need to be changed as prooved to be
wrong. And maybe this is the reason why some people want to hardly to deny
to the bothd folks what they pretend to be:))