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From: rmk4@ellis.uchicago.edu (Robert Knippen)
Subject: Re: Hungarian / Czecho-Slovakian
Message-ID: <1995Jan24.180453.11939@midway.uchicago.edu>
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References: <rharmsen.176.00160003@knoware.nl> <3g11fe$dcq@overload.lbl.gov> <D2wLKA.I4C@actrix.gen.nz>
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 18:04:53 GMT
Lines: 32

Regarding the two (at least) contributors who note that Czech and
Slovak are not the same language, I want to make a comment about
distinguishing related languages from each other.  We all (at least
those of us who actually do linguistics) know how hard it is to
distinguish related languages.  We all know that political and
sociocultural considerations are at least as important as linguistic
ones (as if there really _were_ linguistic guidelines--I really
haven't seen any good ones.)  Thus, it seems to me reasonable to cut
people some slack when they talk about Czecho-Slovak or Serbo-Croat.
I mean, people get to make generalizations about Germanic or Romance
all the time, and some of the relevant languages are pretty
surprizingly different from each other (at least in some areas).  My
point is that there is no final answer about what is a distinct
language and what is a related dialect, and for some purposes, it
makes perfect sense to group related lects.  So can't people just ease
up a bit on this issue?  I mean, if you are a member of one of the
relevant _ethnic_ groups, I'm sure the issue is important to you; but
if you are also a linguist, you should be able to see that this is
nothing like a resolved issue from a linguistic point of view, so this
person really doesn't deserve criticism.

Before you flame me, you should know that I've argued in the past for 
including sociocultural and political considerations in the definition
of a language (as opposed to a dialect) in the sci.lang FAQ.  I'm quite
well aware of all the arguments for the importance of language to
cultural identity, etc. etc.  So don't bother.


Robert Knippen
r-knippen@uchicago.edu


