Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

[Edward Keenan]

Right on!

On Thu, 28 Sep 1995, Robert Beard wrote:

> I personally think it inappropriate for language professionals to be drawn
> into what is a mindless and heartless political war.   The linguistic fact
> is simple:  Croatians, Bosniana, Hercegovinians, Montenegrans, and Serbians
> speak several dialects of one language.  'Serbo-Croatian' is the perfect
> name for it for the simple reason that it is the traditional term.  If
> someone reads a political message in it, the problem resides with them, not
> us.  The situation is parallel to the struggle between 'Indo-European',
> 'Indo-Aryan', and 'Indo-Germanic' in the last century.  The name of a
> language is arbitrary so far as science is concerned.  Truth is not.
>
> Surrendering our own wits and distorting our profession is not, in my
> opinion, an appropriate way to display sympathy for the underdog in any of
> the nationalistic nonsense which has ripped Yugoslavia apart and cost the
> lives of tens of thousands of people.
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Robert Beard                              Bucknell University
> Russian & Linguistics Programs            Lewisburg, PA 17837
> rbeard at bucknell.edu                              717-524-1336
> Russian Program   http://www.bucknell.edu/departments/russian
> Morphology on Internet        http://www.bucknell.edu/~rbeard
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>