Re: dialects vs separate languages (was: The most Latin of Romance languages?)

From: Peter T. Daniels (grammatim_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 08/18/04 

Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 22:17:08 GMT

Rex F. May wrote:
>
> in article dvs6i0holknannq7pc344j7efkgv3t9aik@4ax.com, Harlan Messinger at
> hmessinger.removethis@comcast.net wrote on 8/18/04 9:54 AM:
>
> > "Dorian West" <no@no.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Macedonia is
> >> Greece's largest province, so what does that make them? Alexander of
> >> Macedonia conquered the civilised world and made it speak HIS language,
> >> Greek and practice his culture, Greek all the way down to the writing of The
> >> Holy Bible's New Testament - in GREEK! So much for not Greek linguistically
> >> and culturally.
> >
> > By that reasoning, Albanians, Turks, Lebanese, Palestinians,
> > Egyptians, Iraqis, Iranians, Afghans, and Pakistanis are all Greek
> > too.
> >
> >
> >> You also forgot racially, that's what Macedonians are
> >> racially, culturally and linguistically Hellenic = Greek.
> >>
> >> If you think the temporary named, communist, terrorist state of Former
> >> YugoSLAV "Republic" of Macedonia is the real Macedonia, then go and drink
> >> some more furniture polish with the rest of those Slavs.
> >
> > Niger and Nigeria are both content to be named after the same river;
> > the new government of the former Zaire didn't see any problem resuming
> > its old name, Congo, in spite of having to share it with its neighbor;
> > the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg doesn't whine over the historic and
> > geographical basis for the southernmost province of Belgium sharing
> > its name; Ecuador is by no means the only country that straddles the
> > Equator, without incurring the enmity of Peru, Brazil, Uganda, Kenya,
> > and so forth for usurping the name; the various Guineas all, to the
> > best of my belief, get along; and so on. So in my humble opinion the
> > agitation over a country located in the region known as Macedonia
> > calling itself "Macedonia", regardless of who lives there, is
> > hypernationalistic hysteria and unworthy of sympathy. (And before you
> > start calling me a Slav or an anti-Hellenic or something like
> > that--first, you'd be mistaken, and second, you folks really should
> > broaden your perspective a bit and consider whether most of the world
> > really spends a whole lot of time thinking anything particular about
> > Greeks or Slavs, let alone having a bias against one or the other.
> > You're like a South African who thinks that the average Uruguayan or
> > Korean cares one way or the other whether he's Zulu or Sotho or
> > Tswana.)
>
> Good points. Maybe the State of Georgia should change its name to
> "Helen".... no, wait....

Troy is in New York. Next to Albany. 

-- 
Peter T. Daniels                       grammatim@att.net