Why mention English data on a Slavic list?

[Loren A. BILLINGS]

Someone recently objected to my use of English _blackbird_/_black bird_ on
this list.  I might point out that Tom Beyer <beyer at jaguar.middlebury.edu>
volunteered those (quite relevant) data.  I've also picked up on another
use of English recently; this time  verbs like _It's dark_, mentioned by
Yurij Lotoshko <lotofil at tversu.ac.ru>.  In neither case did I bring up the
English data myself.

But so what if I had?  I, for one, am studying human language.  If
established knowledge about a different language helps us understand a
Slavic phenomenon, then why not?

I have, however, been party to perhaps excessive discussion of toponym
pronunciation on this list in the past (specifically discussion several
months ago of my home town and state:  Lebanon, Oregon; no Georges, I'm not
German).  Such excessive non-SEELangs discussion is not the case here.

--Loren Billings