Poznanės laikotarpis Jano Otrębskio gyvenime

NORBERT OSTROWSKI Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Research interests: historical grammar of the Baltic languages, comparative historical linguistics, historical typology. THE POZNAN PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF JAN OTRĘBSKI The article consists of two parts. The first is biographical and covers Jan Otrębski’s life in Poznań after the Second World War; the second briefly discusses selected major works by J. Otrębski written during the Poznań period. The first part draws on Magdalena Gawrońska-Garstka’s work Jan Szczepan Otrębski. Życie i dzieło (1889–1971) (2014). 1. Jan Otrębski’s life in Poznań Kaip teigia M. Gawrońska-Garस्टka (2014: 90–91), prof. J. Otrębskis atvažiavo į Poznanę 1945 m. rudenį. Tuo laiku į Poznanės universitetą atvyko aštuoni profesoriai iš buvusio Stepono Batoro Universiteto Vilniuje, tarp jų J. Otrębskis ir žymus istorikas Henrykas Łowmiańskis1. Pradžia buvo sunki. Tik kardinolo, o paskui Lenkijos primo Augusto Hlondo dėka J. Otrębskis gavo nedidelį kambarį Poznanės universiteto viešbutyje Matejkos gatvėje 37. Viešbutyje, o iš tikrųjų bendrabutyje, viena virtuve naudojosi 24 šeimos. J. Otrębskio kambarėlyje tilpo dvi lovos ir staliukas, nebuvo atskiros vonios. Kaip rašė pats J. Otrębskis „od 2 miesięcy nie myłem się ani razu jak należy“ („per du mėnesius nė karto nenusiprausiau kaip reikiant“) (Gawrońska-Garstka 2014: 93). J. Otrębskis parsivežė su savimi beveik 10 tūkst. knygų, kurias laikė neišpakuotas koridoriuje, ir daug jų buvo tiesiog išvogtos. Tik 1947 m. J. Otrębskis su savo pirmąja žmona Aniela persikėlė į nedidelį dviejų kambarių butą Rogalińskio gatvėje 8/2 Poznanėje, kur jis gyveno beveik iki mirties. Beje, dėl to buto buvo bylinėjamasi teisme kelerius metus. Pradžioje net buvo pralaimėjęs bylą ir jam grėsė eksmisija. Kaip teigia M. Gawrońska-Garstka (2014: 94), ant J. Otrębskio buvo užsiundyta milicija, ir net buvę išnešti jo baldai, tačiau butą išsaugoti vis dėlto pavyko. 1 Author of such monumental works as Studia nad początkami społeczeństwa i państwa litewskiego (1931–1932), Początki Polski, vols. I–VI (1963–1985), Religia Słowian i jej upadek (w. VI–XII) (1979), Prusy – Litwa – Krzyżacy (1989), and others. Įžvalgos / Insights 245 NORBERT OSTROWSKI It is worth discussing J. Otrębski’s living conditions, since they troubled him and, it seems, were one of the reasons why he later viewed Poznań so critically. J. Otrębski began working at the University of Poznań in the Department of Slavic Studies, whose former head, Professor Henryk Ułaszyn, did not return to Poznań after the war. A very interesting letter has survived from the dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Poznań (then still Poznanės universiteto, and not Adomo Mickevičiaus universiteto) to the rector of Vilnius University. In this letter, the dean writes that J. Otrębski would be unable to teach in Vilnius in the near future, because “prace związane z tworzeniem nowej placówki naukowej zatrzymają go niewątpliwie na miejscu” (“the work involved in establishing a new scientific department will undoubtedly keep him here”) (Gawrońska-Garstka 2014: 95). This means that the authorities of Vilnius University expected J. Otrębski to return. That did not happen. In 1947, the Katedra Filologii Bałtyckiej (Department of Baltic Philology) was established at the University of Poznań; it was based in the Collegium Philosophicum building at 48/49 Matejko Street. The department employed: • Czesław Kudzinowski, J. Otrębski’s student dating back to his time at Vilnius’s Stephen Báthory University2, • Zenon Sobierajski (1947–1948), a Poznań Slavist and Polish philologist, • Nina Borowska (01-01-1953–13-08-1953 – until her death in 1953)3, • Michał Hasiuk (from 1955). The Department of Baltic Philology was a research unit and did not have its own students; its staff lectured to students in other philological disciplines. The only student to earn a master’s degree in the department was N. Borowska. J. Otrębski worked in the department until his retirement, which began on October 30, 1960. Czesław Kudzinowski succeeded J. Otrębski as head, and the department continued to exist until 1969, when it was merged with the Department of General Linguistics, later an institute (now Instytut Językoznawstwa). As mentioned earlier, the Department of Baltic Philology did not have its own students; its staff lectured to students in other philological disciplines. From the data collected by M. Gawrońska-Garstka (2014: 98–103), we learn that in the 1945–1946 academic year J. Otrębski taught “Język staropruski” (“Old Prussian”), “Czytanie dawniejszych tekstów litewskich” (“Reading older Lithuanian texts”), “Czytanie tekstów sanskryckich” (“Reading Sanskrit texts”), and “Wykład z języka cerkiewnosłowiańskiego” (“Lecture on Church Slavonic”). It is worth noting how often the word “czytanie” (“reading”) recurs. J. Otrębski gave priority to textual analysis, 2 A distinguished Lithuanian philologist (among other things, author of the index to Daukša’s Postilė) and a specialist in Finnish (author of a two-volume Finnish–Polish dictionary). 3 The author of the still relevant work “Wpływy słowiańskie na litewską terminologię kościelną na podstawie Dictionarium Szyrwida” (Studia z filologii polskiej i słowiańskiej 2, 1957). 246 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXII Poznanės laikotarpis Jano Otrębskio gyvenime Thus the text was the point of departure. J. Otrębski also gave lectures devoted to Sanskrit and the analysis of its texts in subsequent years. A specialist in classical languages, in the 1950–1951 academic year he taught “Interpretacja języka archaicznych tekstów łacińskich” (“Interpretation of the language of archaic Latin texts”). But he devoted most of his attention to the Baltic languages, teaching, among other subjects, “Gramatyka języka litewskiego” (“Lithuanian Grammar”), “Czytanie tekstów łotewskich” (“Reading Latvian texts”), the linguistic analysis of Daukša’s Postilė, and the historical inflection of the Baltic languages, among other topics (see Gawrońska-Garstka 2014: 98–103). J. Otrębski was also interested in Albanian. He supervised the dissertation of the Albanologist Wacław Cimochowski. In 1956, J. Otrębski proposed that a Katedra Ugrofinistyki (Department of Finno-Ugric Studies) be established at Adam Mickiewicz University (after Stalin’s death, Poznań University changed its name4). J. Otrębski justified his proposal as follows: “The establishment of such a department would not present any major difficulties, since our center has a specialist in this field, Associate Professor Kudzinowski, as well as a library” (“The establishment of such a department would not present any major difficulties, since our center already has a specialist in this field, Associate Professor Kudzinowski, and a library”) (Gawrońska-Garstka 2014: 110). Now a few words about J. Otrębski’s attitude toward Poznań. J. Otrębski did not like Poznań—a feeling that was especially evident toward the end of his life. He passed this aversion on to his second wife, Helena Samaniūtė, whom he married in 1955. Mrs. Urszula Bielanowska, the caretaker of the building on Rogalińskiego Street where the Otrębskis lived, describes her as follows: “Druga żona nienawidziła Poznaniaków, ktoś jej wmówił, że to są Niemcy” (“The second wife hated the people of Poznań; someone had persuaded her that they were Germans”) (Gawrońska-Garstka 2014: 128). Perhaps Mrs. U. Bielanowska exaggerated, but the Otrębskis wanted to return to Vilnius. In her book (2014: 126), M. Gawrońska-Garstka quotes an excerpt from a letter J. Otrębski sent to the Polish Minister of Education on October 27, 1970: “I work as before, without respite, mainly preparing for publication things sketched out long ago. [...] Important events have recently taken place here. Vilnius University has proposed to me (in writing and verbally) that my wife and I return to Vilnius, promising suitable housing and living and working conditions. Before I die, I would like to prepare for publication my extensive Lithuanian-language studies, which are already far advanced. For this I need materials from the Institute of the Lithuanian Language in Vilnius. In my apartment in Poznań, because of its cramped size, for 25 years I have not had 4 As Professor M. Hasiukas told me, that was the decision of the Poznań University Senate, when news reached Poznań that an idea had arisen in the Ministry of Education in Warsaw to name Poznań University after Stalin. Įžvalgos / Insights 247 NORBERT OSTROWSKI room to arrange my books properly or to make full use of my entire library. Finally, there is my wife’s state of health: since arriving in Poznań, she has suffered from rheumatic ailments. Therefore, I accepted the Vilnius offer and took the necessary steps. Since May, our passports for travel have been at the militia station. Because insurmountable difficulties arose in connection with transporting the library and philatelic collections5, and I recently fell ill, we changed our decision and are staying in the country” (“I work as always, without rest, first of all preparing for publication things outlined long ago. [...] Important events have recently taken place. Vilnius University offered me (in writing and verbally) that my wife and I return to Vilnius, promising a suitable apartment and living and working conditions. Before I die, I would like to prepare for publication extensive Lithuanian studies that are already well advanced. For this purpose, I need the materials held at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. In my apartment in Poznań, because of its cramped size, for 25 years I have had no space to arrange my books properly and cannot make proper use of my library. Finally, there is my wife’s state of health: since arriving in Poznań, she has suffered from rheumatism. Therefore, I accepted this offer and took the appropriate steps. Since May, our passports have been at the militia station. Because problems arose in transporting the library and philatelic collections that we could not overcome on our own, and I recently fell ill, we changed our decision and are staying in this country”) (Gawrońska-Garstka 2014: 126). These words were written by a man who was undoubtedly full of bitterness. Did he feel that he had not been properly appreciated? He was one of the greatest Polish linguists, known beyond Poland. He was invited to congresses in Oslo, Naples, Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, and Brno. At the University of Vienna, he taught the history of the Slavic and Baltic languages. Thus the question arises: where did this bitterness come from? Were living conditions alone, the problems with the apartment and its cramped size, what made Poznań such a great disappointment to J. Otrębski? Probably not. The prewar and postwar years were a time of structuralism’s triumph, when, for example, Jerzy Kuryłowicz’s star rose. J. Otrębski was a linguist of the older generation, more of a Neogrammarian, and perhaps an awareness of time passing and of new trends in linguistics, with which J. Otrębski’s Neogrammarian views did not accord, was one of the causes of his bitterness. J. Otrębski’s aversion to Poznań grew to such an extent that in his will, dated December 4, 1968, he even wrote: “It is my wish to be buried in Vilnius or in the vicinity of Vilnius. Poznań was a place of torment for me, and so I do not wish to rest forever in Poznań” (“It is my wish to be buried in Vilnius or its surroundings. Poznań was a place of suffering for me, so I do not wish to rest forever in Poznań”) (Gawrońska-Garstka 2014: 127). 5 Otrębski was an Austrian philatelist. 248 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXII Poznanės laikotarpis Jano Otrębskio gyvenime J. Otrębski was buried not in Poznań, but in Puszczykowo, a picturesque town near Poznań, to which he moved at the end of his life. J. Otrębski wanted to donate his prewar house in Pavilnys (Kolonia Wileńska, Kryniczna St. 5), as he wrote in the aforementioned will: „„to the ownership of the principal scientific institution in Vilnius, that is, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, which would establish some kind of scientific outpost there [...]“ („to the principal scientific institution in Vilnius, that is, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, so that an appropriate scientific department might be established there [...]“). 2. Jan Otrębski’s Scholarly Work in Poznań J. Otrębski wrote nearly 350 works on Indo-European studies, ancient Indian philology, classical philology, Slavic, Polish and, of course, Baltic philology, especially Lithuanian philology. A true titan of work. Here I would like to draw attention to two works by J. Otrębski that, in my opinion, are the most important and were created during his Poznań period. The first is Lingua Posnaniensis, a journal founded by J. Otrębski, who edited its first nine issues. Volume 1 appeared in 1949. It will suffice to mention the authors who submitted articles for the first volume: Holger Pedersen, Christian Stang, Jānis Endzelīns, Eino Nieminen, Václav Machek, and, from Poland, Zdzisław Stieber, Wacław Cimochowski, and Tadeusz Milewski, who had already begun to take an interest in typology and the languages of Native Americans. In the first volume, J. Otrębski himself reviewed Specht’s Der Ursprung der idg. Deklination, Benveniste’s Origines de la formation des noms en indo-européen, and Rozwadowski’s Studia nad nazwami wód słowiańskich. In the second volume, articles were published by H. Pedersen, J. Otrębski (who wrote an article entitled “La formation des noms de lieux en Lithuanien”), Ernst Fraenkel, V. Georgiev, V. Machek, and T. Milewski. The journal’s articles covered practically all Indo-European languages and went beyond the bounds of Indo-European studies. T. Milewski’s article “La structure de la phrase dans les langues indigènes de l’Amérique du Nord” appeared in the second volume. Articles by J. Otrębski, V. Machek, J. Endzelīns, E. Fraenkel, and E. Nieminen appeared in the third volume. In the fourth volume, H. Pedersen wrote about the Hittite language; in the fifth volume, Johannes Friedrich, a prominent German orientalist, wrote about the Luwian language. In that same fifth volume, Jonas Balčikonis published an article on the origin of the verb veizdėti. This is the best etymology of this verb known to me, and, it seems, unfortunately, it has been completely forgotten by contemporary etymologists. Also in the fifth volume, van Windekens wrote about the Pelasgians, while J. Otrębski wrote about Old Prussian onomastics. T. Milewski compared the phonological systems of the languages of the Caucasus and of Native Americans in North America. Besides J. Balčikonis, other Lithuanians also submitted articles. The seventh volume featured Įžvalgos / Insights 249 NORBERT OSTROWSKI works by Lithuanian emigrants: Leonardo Dambrūnas on aspect in Lithuanian and Pranas Skardžius on Lithuanian duoklė and Belarusian djaklo. It is safe to say that there was—and probably still is—no other journal of this caliber, of the highest international standard, in Poland, although Lingua Posnaniensis continues to be published to this day. And finally, his opus magnum, the life’s work of J. Otrębski: the three-volume Gramatyka języka litewskiego. From the text of the grammar, we learn that J. Otrębski also planned to write a fourth volume, devoted to the syntax of the Lithuanian language. J. Otrębski wrote as much in the preface to the first volume (p. XI): „Volume IV will contain a treatment of the sentence. This section requires particular effort. The main task here is to present the syntax of the contemporary literary language. Yet this language displays quite a number of uncertain details, unresolved in the final analysis, precisely in the area of syntax. The author of this Grammar of the Lithuanian Language is therefore faced, as it were, with the task of indicating, and sometimes even establishing, norms in the field of syntax—a task that is undesirable and thankless. Secondly, the author of a Lithuanian syntax has been given the task of presenting, in Volume IV, the historical development of Lithuanian syntax“ („The fourth volume will cover syntax. This section requires particular effort. First, it is necessary to present the syntax of contemporary Lithuanian. Yet this language has many unclear details, especially in the field of syntax, which have not been fully clarified. The author of this Grammar of the Lithuanian Language must not only indicate norms but also establish them in the field of syntax—a task that is undesirable and thankless. Secondly, in the fourth volume the author of a Lithuanian syntax must show the development of Lithuanian syntax from its very beginnings“). Thus, Otrębski’s grammar was intended to combine diachrony and synchrony, and that is indeed what it does. Professor M. Hasiuk carefully examined and leafed through J. Otrębski’s books and documents held in the Vilnius University Library, but found nothing. Professor J. Otrębski did not have time to realize these plans. Or might the Vilnius University Library somewhere hold at least some material or an outline for the fourth volume of the “Grammar of the Lithuanian Language”? J. Otrębski was invited to write a grammar by Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe of Warsaw, but the spiritus movens was the distinguished Slavicist Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński. First, the third volume, Nauka o formach (1956), was published; then the first, Wiadomości wstępne. Nauka o głoskach (1958); and only at the end the second, Nauka o budowie wyrazów (1965). J. Otrębski worked longest on the second volume. It was a response to Pranas Skardžius’s Žodžių daryba. These two books remain exemplary for anyone wishing to study the historical word formation of Lithuanian. J. Otrębski’s grammar is a work without equal for its time. It will suffice to note that the first volume of an academic grammar of Lithuanian was printed only in 1965, when J. Otrębski’s last volume had been 250 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXII Poznanės laikotarpis Jano Otrębskio gyvenime already at the publisher. Today, J. Otrębski’s grammar still makes a great impression. I study the history of the Lithuanian language, and J. Otrębski’s grammar is a veritable mine of material for my work. Of course, some things in it may seem outdated, and it is, but the work is nevertheless impressive. Its author’s education and erudition were impressive. And it was written by a man who, after all, could not himself use a card file for a Lithuanian-language dictionary. I hope the time will come when J. Otrębski’s grammar is published anew, but as a critical edition, with commentary, as is done with other old writings. For example, in 2009, an English translation of Jakub Wackernagel’s Vorlesungen über Syntax was published in Oxford. It was precisely because this is a critical edition that the book acquired new value. One can only hope that this will someday happen with J. Otrębski’s grammar as well. L I T E R A T U R E Gawrońska-Garστάka Magdalena 2015: Jan Szczepan Otrębski. Życie i dzieło (1889–1971). Poznań: Wydawnictwo Rys. Submitted on May 18, 2015. N O R B E R T O S T R O W S K I Instytut Językoznawstwa, Zakład Bałtologii Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu al. Niepodległości 4, PL-61-874, Poznań [email protected] Įžvalgos / Insights 251