Re: a discussion on OIT: attention moderator

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...>
wrote:

>
> > >
> > Could you please explain what you mean by saying
> > that most East
> > European nations owe their existence to linguistics?
> > I have always
> > understood linguistics to mean the study of language
> > -- how can that
> > figure in the history of East European languages?
> > Obviously you are
> > referring to something else such as linguistic
> > identity perhaps, but I
> > can't figure out what you mean. Could you explain?
> >
> > Andrew
> >
> He's referring to the Wilsonian ideal of a nation for
> every linguistic group --i.e. language = ethnicity.
> Slavic states were carved out on this this after WWI.
> And many of these disintegrated into even smaller
> states, principally based on language. And even
> Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia claim to speak Bosnian,
> Croatian and Serbian. The USSR also identified
> ethnicity with language --with the exception of its
> Jewish citizens, who were singled out as a religious
> group in a nation that disavowed religion.
>

OK got it. I will have to brush up on European history. Didn't
study it in high school and since then never really developed a
strong interest in it, but I see of course it's very necessary to
understand the state of the world today.

Andrew