Velta Rūķe-Draviņa

ACTA LINGUISTICA LITHUANICA XLVIII (2003), 197-199 IN MEMORIAM VELTA RŪKE-DRAVINA 1917 01 25 — 2003 05 07 On 7 May 2003, at the age of 86, the famous Latvian linguist and Baltist Velta Rūke-Dravina died in Sweden (Stockholm). Velta Rūke was born on January 25, 1917 in Valmiera, northern Latvia. His parents had moved to Russia during the war and returned to Riga four years later. The future linguist graduated from Riga 2nd Gymnasium, studied Baltic philology at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Philology and Philosophy, in 1940 she worked as an assistant to Professor Janis Endzelynas. She later headed the Latvian Language Repository. In 1944 she was forced to leave Latvia with her husband, Karlis Dravinš. From the coast of Curonian Spit, which, as Rūkė told in her memoirs, was guarded by Lithuanian soldiers mobilized by the Germans and with whom the fugitives managed to reach an agreement, they reached the coasts of Scandinavia by motorboats after a dramatic journey. He taught Baltic and Slavic languages at the University of Lund (1948–1968) and defended his doctoral dissertation Diminutive im Lettischen (1959). He then worked at the University of Stockholm, where he studied Slavic studies and taught Baltic and Slavic studies (1969-1984- ). Surprisingly multifaceted researcher’s activity: significant contribution to the study of both Latvian common language and dialects, phraseology, language culture, writers’ language, stylistics, children’s language, etc. Velta Rūkės Dravinienė’s first publications were devoted to dialects and the history of their study (Latvių tarmėtyra 1918-1938 /Latviešu izlokšnu pėtišanas darbs 1918-1938). In 1940, she also wrote and published the Program for the Description of Dialects (Programma izlokšnu aprakstiem). Twenty years later, writing about the relevance of dialect research, she emphasized the importance of dialect phonemes for the Latvian phonology archive. Rūke-Dravina herself yes 198 | IN MEMORIAM also tried to implement her principles by publishing descriptions of three different dialects: Viškių dialektas (1939), Stendės dialektas (together with her husband Karlas Dravinis; 3 parts: 1955, 1958, 1962), Galgauskas dialektas (together with Alvilas Klėbachas-Kalnietis, 1996). In addition to these valuable descriptions, she has published two articles where dialect groups are discussed from a geolinguistic point of view („Latgales izlokšnu grupējums“, 1939 and „Kurzemes un Vidzemes libiskais apgabals- “, 1940). The author’s contribution to toponymy is also worth mentioning: this is a monograph on the place names of Kauguri parish — one of the few complete descriptions of the toponymy of one parish (Place Names in Kauguri County, Latvia, 1971), where Lithuanian language data are also used for comparison. The result of many years of observation and research is the monograph The Standardization process in Latvian: 16th Century to the Present (1977), which reflects the 400-year development of the Latvian language. In this thesis the author points out the origins of the common Latvian language, analyzes the first written sources and their linguistic and orthographic features, states and evaluates language development trends, observes language and changes from the point of view of sociolinguistics. The linguist admits that the Latvian language has long been shaped by the principle of historicity, which gives priority to archaism, but language practice is already moving away from this principle. Velta Rūkė-Dravinia, although living far from her homeland, noticed such trends as language variability, changes in grammatical forms, increased use of international words and slang in literature, especially in poetry. From her youth she was interested in language culture: in 1940 she published language practice tips (Valodas un rakstibas jautūjumi, edited by Janis Endzelynas) to help avoid more common language errors, and in 1942 her Latvian spelling dictionary (Latviešu pareizrakstibas vardnica) was published. Velta Rūkė-Dravinia was one of the first Baltists to take an interest in children’s language. He was awarded the 1982 National Book Award for his book From Five Months to Five Years (No pieciem mēnešiem lidz pieciem gadiem, 1982). Velta Rūke-Dravinienė has always been interested in the specifics and stylistics of fictional language: she wrote about the language of Latvian poets and prose writers Rainis, Kaudzytis, Ievinis and others. In her works, the Latvian language data are often compared with the Lithuanian language material: especially in the monograph Latvian language deminutives and the book Latvian language standardization process, published on the basis of her dissertation. In her articles, the author discussed the names of such lexicons as juniper, grikis in Baltic languages, compared the word structure of Latvian and Lithuanian languages (Dialektgeographische Unterschiede auf dem Gebiet der Wortbildung im Baltischen), the numerals of Baltic and Slavic languages. She compiled and edited the collection of articles Donum Balticum (1970) dedicated to the anniversary of Christian S. Stange, where she herself published a valuable study on /nitial Consonant Combinations in Lithuanian and Latvian, in which she states that in Lithuanian there are more consonant phonemes, which are more loosely combined after 2 and 3 at the beginning of the word. The Lithuanian consonant combinations are characteristic of the Latvian common language, but are often found in Polish: pj-, bj-, km-, gn'-, cv-, čv-, sl’-, sn’, šč-, šk-, šn-, zI’-, zm-, žl-, Zm-, žn-, fl. On the other hand, most of the dominant consonant combinations at the beginning of a word in Latvian (such as pr-, kr-, tr-, sp-, st-, str-) IN MEMORIAM | 199 coincides su with similar consonant combinations in Estonian. According to the author, this supports the hypothesis of Finnish influence on Latvian language. Her efforts have been found published in ir Swedish archives to preserve F. Notes of Fortunatov's lectures on Lithuanian phonetics. Velta Rūkės-Dravinienė’s active philological activity, long-term research and publications received recognition abroad: she was elected professor of general linguistics at ji the University of Stockholm, later professor of Baltic linguistics, became a member of the Swedish Academy of Humanities, — 1980 m. 0 1990 m. — ir Foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. During the occupation, she ji was the most prominent Latvian linguist in the emigration, kė representing Latvian linguists at international congresses, even renbaltistika conferences in Stockholm. gė Velta Rūkė-Dravinia was only a ne linguist, a philologist in ji — the broad sense of the word: she was interested in literature, ir literary criticism, folklore, edited magazines, and in her youth wrote her own poems. Laimutė Baluodė Riga–Helsinki