When was the last time you read in any newspaper something like "a Romance man..." or "the Germanics from the countryside..."? Western newspapers often use term Slavs when not being specific of their nationality.



Most South Slavs. Since they are mostly descendants of the pre-Slavic inhabitants of the Balkans that adopted Slavic languages they resent being grouped together with people from West and East Slavic group who are very different from them. Pan-Slavists always try to look for similarities between Slavs, but they fail to see the canyon in between.

I don't read newspapers. But I think I see your point.


What are some of those differences?

Actually, I don't care for Russian either, which is a shame because it's always been the one I've had the most cause to use. One of my direct reports at work is a Russian speaker, and we get a fair number of publications in Russian here (certainly more than in any other Slavic language). Also, my older brother speaks it and I've picked some up helping him study. But I've never retained much because, feh, it's Russian.

At one time or another, I've studied some Czech and some Croatian (the unofficial lingua franca of Chicago's building engineers); currently, I'm trying to learn some Polish (the unofficial lingua franca of its carpenters). But this is all very much an afterthought compared to my interest in the languages listed in my .sig.

Well you'll have to read on about it or come live here and see for yourself. Music for example is the first and most obvious thing that separates South Slavs from other Slavs. Then there are manners, outlook on life, tolerance, food preferences, goals in life, etc. I for example like to compare South Slavs with Americans from the southern states, and West Slavs with Canadians. East Slavs come somewhere in between. You could also push Macedonians and Bulgarians to Mexico and Slovenians to California. Surprisingly it actually all fits.

If Slovenia is California, then what is Austria? Slovenians always struck me as Austrians who simply happen to speak a Slavic language.

Hey, I'm both.

I would undoubtedly feel more connected with my heritage if my father had passed on the Polish language and if I still attended Mass, but there you go.

Austrians are actually descendants of Bavarian colonists and miners who settled in regions inhabited by Old Slovak-Slovenian speakers. Austrians are just Slovenians/Slovaks who simply happen to speak a Germanic language.

That's absolutely true.

Here are some languages on my wish list:

Portuguese
Norwegian
Latin
Greek
Bahasa Indonesia

Indonesian's the odd one out.