Fw: Fw: Gyula Décsy and his work

[Johanna Laakso]

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Stefan Georg <Georg at home.ivm.de>
An: Johanna Laakso <johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at>
Datum: 27 January 2001 20:08
Betreff: Re: Fw: Gyula Décsy and his work


>
>On another discussion list, a student, Ante Aikio, has suggested that the
>work of Gyula Décsy on Uralic root reconstruction should be viewed with
>extreme scepticism; also, he questions the reconstructions in the
Uralisches
>Etymologisches Wörterbuch, and characterizes it as unreliable.
>
>He also asserts that this is the general opinion among Uralists.
>
>I have no axe to grind here. I am just wondering is Aikio is accurately
>characterizing the opinions of most Uralists on these two subjects.


As with most works of reference, and especially with etymological
dictionaries, both can be used if the user is well-informed enough
about things Uralic to be able to check the relevant data and form an
educated opinion of his own.

Whether *any* work on Uralic historical linguistics and etymology can
be fruitfully employed for purposes like those advocated on  Mr.
Ryan's web-site, which his signature mentions, is of course an
entirely different question, the answer to which is of course: barely.


St.G.
--
Dr. Stefan Georg
Heerstraße 7
D-53111 Bonn
FRG
Tel./Fax +49-228-691332