>It would benefit myself as well as anyone else
> who is new, and perhaps slightly intimidated; if you regulars could
> just give a small thumbnail sketch of who you are and what your
> qualifications on the subject might be.
Don't be intimidated! There is a very wide range of abilities and
knowledge among the regular posters.
As for myself, I have PhD in Applied Linguistics, and I studied linguistics
at Cambridge a while back. I have been out of the field for a while, but
have recently returned to it. I'm confident in Greek Latin Sanskrit German,
and few other languages that don't help with PIE very much. For Celtic and
B-S I have to rely on others. I prefer the good hard solid factual stuff of
reconstruction, but can cope with fantasy and exploration of possibilities.
But postings which present mere opinions as if they were fact annoy me not a
little.
Peter