Scripts

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Dominik wrote:

>discussion list. The main languages of indological scholarship include
>French and German, and postings in these or other languages are welcome,
>with or without translation.  

To me as a person with a European educational background, postings in French
or German do not create a problem. I am not so sure about Americans, and
certainly not so sure about our colleagues in India, some of whom may have
thought it more worthwhile to learn other languages than French and German.
Putting French and German on an equal footing with English (the one European
language that educated Indians are certain to master) is in my opinion a
rather eurocentric thing to do these days (and we do want to communicate
with Indian colleagues too,don't we?) I think English should be the business
language of Indology. Apabhramshas like German and French should be left for
internal use in those countries, like Norwegian is left to Norwegians.

Best (provocative?) regards,

Lars Martin Fosse