> (1)
>
> Back in the seventies I used to do dialectological field work in a
> Croatian village. I befriended a local intellectual and we spent long
> evenings discussing all sorts of issues. Quite naturally I also
> brought up my own results. I was shocked when at a certain point my
> friend urged me not to publish one of those results because "The
> Serbs could take advantage of it to prove that Croatians don't
> exist". [...]
>
> (2)
>
> [...] Yet I vividly recall a congress in
> the late nineties where a keynote speaker used the inflammatory
> word "separatist" to characterize Zaliznjak's result. [...]
>
> I don't think I need to add to this but I apologize for my tone.
> Balkan linguistics brings out the worst in people.
>
> Willem
A similar thing: to some Greek (and even to people of Romanian
and/or Aromanian descent), to say "Aromanians not only speak a
Romanian dialect, but they are historically, and thus ethnically,
Romanians" means danger -- as though the imminent result of
this statement would be Romania's territory claims in Greece in
the short run (or at least the peril of creating Romanian enclaves
in Greece). Now I'd rather understand frictions with Albania over
Girokastron and with FYROM because of the name of Macedonia
& the like, but no Romanian state formation North of the Danube
ever had interest/traditions/claims as far as any Greek region is
concerned. The modern state Romania (towards the end of the
19th c. and the beginning of the 20th c.) barely payed attention
to Aromanians over there. After WW2, Romania didn't care in the
slightest way - so that generations of Romanians grew up knowing
incomparably much more on, say, Italy, France, UK, America (anyway)
than on their kinship in N-Greece, S-Albania, Macedonia, other
former YU provinces as well as in Bulgaria. (A li'l bit awareness
in mass-media only since... 1997, so that people in Romania
could read/hear/see something regarding those minorities far
away, as well as the some awareness that the Northern province
of Maramuresh is only the southern part of the historical Maramuresh,
its northern part never having united with Romania in 1919, and that
population (with family ties beyond the river of Tisa) have stood
there ever since becoming Czechoslovak citizens betw. WW1 and WW2,
then Hungarian citizens and after WW2 Ukrainian ones. But they
are as Romanians as those beyond the river and speak a subdialect
which is up to 95%-99% identical with mine. In contrast, Hungarians
were always aware of their kinship in the same region and a further
one, that belong to the Ukraine.
So... (The EU will solve all problems only as long as it'll have dough
to dole out. Otherwise we'll need the help of Rumsfeld's GIs. :-))
George