>''People find it a little quaint, a little forced,'' said Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University and author of ''You Just Don't Understand'' (William Morrow, 1990).
>At worst, Ms. Tannen said, the phrase is associated with sinister historical precedents.
>''There is one particular group -- American Jews, and I am Jewish -- for whom it has a menacing association,'' she said.
>Nazis favored the word ''heimat,'' or ''homeland,'' and homeland defense forces were known as Heimwehr or Heimatschutz in Austria and Germany from the late 1920's.
>''People find it a little quaint, a little forced,'' said Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University and author of ''You Just Don't Understand'' (William Morrow, 1990).
>At worst, Ms. Tannen said, the phrase is associated with sinister historical precedents.
>''There is one particular group -- American Jews, and I am Jewish -- for whom it has a menacing association,'' she said.
>Nazis favored the word ''heimat,'' or ''homeland,'' and homeland defense forces were known as Heimwehr or Heimatschutz in Austria and Germany from the late 1920's.