The Great SEELANGS Vowel Controversy

[Eliot Borenstein]

At the risk of extending a thread that should probably be allowed to
unravel painlessly, I have to say that I think people might be taking the
"Vowels to Bosnia" post a wee bit too seriously.  Yes, the names in this
piece have nothing in common with Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, but the article
was clearly written by a non-specialist and designed for non-specialists.
It was kindly forwarded to us by George Mitrevski, but we are certainly not
the original intended audience.

We have to recall that the average non-Slavist finds the names of
ex-Yugoslav towns completely daunting, and that many of the consonant
clusters are unfamiliar.  If the typical American's reaction to such names
is something along the lines of "I'd like to buy a vowel," who can blame
them?

In any case, this satire seems aimed more at America than at the Balkans.
If it pokes fun at anything, it's the US goverment's own self-importance
when it embarks on any sort of international program.  As a veteran of
George Bush's abysmal Russian aid program "Operation Provide Hope" (or, as
we called it, "Operation Provide Khaliava"), I can certainly relate.

Finally, as to the appropriateness of any attempt at humor relating to
Bosnia, the best source for such humor would probably be ... Sarajevo.  As
I recall, some Sarajevan journalists put together a tourist's guide to the
Bosnian capital, complete with local seige-inspired recipes.  Let's not let
the well-known irony of Yugoslav humor be another casualty of this war.

                                Eliot Borenstein
                                New York University