Indo-Germanic

[jacob.baltuch at infoboard.be]

>You have to remember which generation of Germans you are talking about. Most
>of the Germans involved in the Second World War as adult and politically
>responsible individuals are today decrepit, dying or dead. I have studied in
>Germany for two years (in the seventies), and my impression was that the
>Germans that belonged to my generation were not much different from
>Scandinavians of about the same age.

Exactly. This is why I find the hyper-sensitivity of some well-meaning
non-Germans, when such topics are discussed, pretty ironical, given that
Germans of this generation have no trouble at all discussing them, and
are much more ready to approach them just as what they are for them,
namely history.

When I posted on this list a comment on Bopp's position on "IE",
I tried to make clear I did not believe the use of "IG" by German
Indoeuropeanists nowadays was anything other than idiomatic (while suggesting
that they might want to look at the pedigree of the term nonetheless)

Sure enough, I was immediately jumped on by a non-German (of course),
for not leaving old history alone, for treating the Germans like pariahs
and I don't know what else.