Re: Stacking up on standard works

At 9:06:47 AM on Monday, April 2, 2012, Tavi wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"
> <bm.brian@...> wrote:

>>>> Trask's Etymological Dictionary of Basque, left
>>>> incomplete at his death, makes Basque <mintz>
>>>> 'membrane; hymen; skin' a borrowing from Romance,
>>>> probably from Aragonese <binça> 'membrane'. That rather
>>>> tends to cast doubt on a pre-Basque *bints.

>>> Actually it's the Romance word which was borrowed from
>>> Paleo-Basque and not other way around. Trask was wrong
>>> about this.

>> I know that Larry Trask was (a) one of the foremost
>> experts on Basque and (b) a competent historical
>> linguist. If you have any competence as a historical
>> linguist, you're going out of your way to hide it in your
>> posts here. I have no reason whatsoever to prefer your
>> unsupported assertion to his.

> Although authority arguments don't appeal to me,

We all have to rely in part on authorities: no one can know
everything. Weighing authorities is a rather fundamental
intellectual skill.

I do not have on hand the evidence or the knowledge of
Basque historical phonology to make an independent
judgement, so I must in the first instance rely on expert
opinion. Larry Trask was a recognized authority on Basque,
and I've plenty of positive direct experience with the
quality of his argumentation in an assorment of books and
on-line forums. I have plenty of negative direct experience
with the quality of your argumentation. In this case it's
not at all difficult to decide whose conclusion is more
likely to be correct, never mind the further evidence of the
very late attestation of Basque <mintz>.

> [...] academic Vascologists.

That hole just keeps getting deeper.

Piotr's already disposed of the rest.

Brian