Re: [tied] az+

I have access

> to dictionaries and grammars of Bulgarian, so if there's something I
> don't know, I know where to check it up. Is that enough?

Piotr, the question was as it was - a question.

> In general, however,
> linguistics is not the art of speaking many languages.

The art of speaking languages fluently is connected with other
knowledge that you become in touch with. E.g. how your own brain
functions in a multilinguial environment.

You may speak a

> language very well but know nothing _about_ it, have no idea where it
> comes from, what it's related to, etc.

In speaking foreign languages, which you had to learn in a
non-native-speaking context at the very beginning, it is hardly so.
Or you will simply be speaking many languages badly with a quite
limited vocabulary and means of expression.

Most native speakers of any

> language are blissfully ignorant of such stuff, just as they don't give
> a damn about the difference between a pronoun and a preposition.

I was not talking about native speakers exclusively. But I do not
think a Bulgarian who makes good use of the Bulgarian language in
writing and speaking would be ignorant of grammar.

This is

> why native users are not automatically experts on their own first
> language.

Of course.

If one studies a large field, like Indo-European (where the

> number of living languages is several hundred), it isn't humanly
> possible to learn all, or even most of them, but the knowledge of a few
> modern languages plus familiarity with two or three dead ones gives
> you sufficient competence.

Depends for what you mean it is sufficient. I am wondering if
comparative linguistics would help you particularly in deciphering
texts on archeological findings. This would need more than just
general knowledge of grammar.

The most important thing is not to know

> everything about everything but to know where and how to collect more
> information if need be.

This is completely correct, in my opinion. Different people may
consider the information is to be sought in different places and so
reach varying conclusions.

Eva