[tied] Re: Balto-Slavic -RHj-?

From: willemvermeer
Message: 35820
Date: 2005-01-05

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, mkapovic@... wrote:

> Hm, I think that user-unfriendliness is a prerequisite for almost
any book
> on Slavic accentology :-). Dybo's style is not much more readable
than
> Kortlandt's...


I tend to agree with that, although the problems are completely
different. Keeping up with the work of the Moscow school is almost
incompatible with the demands of a full-time job even if you are a
slavist. For non-slavists it must be sheer hell.

It may seem ungrateful to criticize these giants for their style, but
it happens so often that just a little bit of extra care on their
part would have made a huge difference for the reader. It's no
accident that neither Kortlandt's work nor that of the Moscow school
has received what one could call a regular critical reception, with
the partial exception of Winter's law. And that is unpleasant.


Willem