Dear Vassilis,
For anyone more than two countries away from what used to be Yugoslavia, this
is a total non-issue. Everyone knows that there are more ethnic groups than
countries all over the balkans, and oftentimes, there's more languages than
ethnic groups in a region. Every language needs a name, and most of the time,
the name is determined by the people that speak it, and nobody comes up and
tells them "There is no such language. Call it so-and-so."
The real issue is obviously that for some reason, some Greek people are
unhappy with the fact that Macedonia is independent. And this frustration,
apparently, leads you to trolling around amoung open source developers to
change the name of the Macedonian translation.
Now, if we could, just for the sake of our joint effort here, stop clinging to
some nationalistic issue of pride, accept the political past for what it is,
take the world as it presents itself at the moment, and go on developing this
wonderful project, we would be serving our common cause best.
~Mik
On Wednesday 20 June 2007 21:57, Vassilis Stathopoulos wrote:
If we don't want to beat around the bush, this covers it all. There is
just no "Macedonian" language and no FYROMian or FYROMish of course as
you clearly pointed out.
I assume that FYROM members of the list would accept that since actually
their language is mainly just Slavic dialect.
Again, it's the right of every individual to name himself anyhow he
enjoys, but he must respect the international rules and decisions as
well. I would much like to be called "King Vassilis the first" speaking
my "Vassilanian" language but unfortunately for the time being I can
only do that inside my own home (and later probably the nut house ;-)).
Luckily for me, my wife, kids and parents call me by that name,
including some colleagues (namely my landlord, the grocer and a car
salesman that wants to sell me expensive cars).
Vassilis