--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:
> Willem is referring to the Finnish linguist Kalevi Wiik.
> Merlijn de Smit has a rather devastating summary of his
> views and lots of references at
> <http://www.geocities.com/isolintu/voodoo.html>.
My personal favourite among the none-too-numerous publications in
generally accessible languages is Cornelius Hasselblatt's article "Wo
die wahre revolution ist". He argues virtually from first principles
why it is his considered opinion that what those people are doing is
flat earth science, without resorting to invective or exclamation
marks or similar rhetorical substitutes for the real thing.
I find the Wiiiiiik case very instructive, also because it is new.
That is a big difference with such examples as the Romanian case,
where positions have been crystal clear for ages and where the task
of generations now living is just to ensure that the minds of their
home audience remain closed by repeating stuff that has been repeated
ad nauseam already although it is largely or completely irrelevant,
unfounded or worse. It also shows how easy it is to establish mental
links between phenomena that are not mutually connected at all, such
as a hypothetical Proto-Uralic linguistic space that is hypothesized
to have existed ages ago in Europe and membership of the European
Union. And finally it shows that there are commercial markets for
this kind of stuff. Who's next?
Willem