This classification has no single basis (for example, place names of Prussian or Curonian origin may also derive from hydronyms, personal names, occupational names, and so on), but it provides a comprehensive, general picture of the origins and formation of the names of settlements in Lithuania Minor.

The second subsection of this chapter, “Changes in Place Names,” traces the region’s Germanization historically, followed later by Russification, which ultimately drove the Baltic languages out of this territory. The study concludes with an extensive (nine-page) summary in German and a list of the names of the 210 church villages that once existed here.

In concluding this review of the book, it should be said that, alongside authentic and valuable material, researchers of place names will also find matters open to criticism here—dubious etymologies and other inaccuracies in the analysis of names. Nevertheless, no one can deny that V. Pėteraitis’s study “Place Names of Lithuania Minor and Tvanksta,” like this author’s first book, “Lithuania Minor and Tvanksta,” once again bears witness to the Baltic substratum of Lithuania Minor and makes an important contribution to the treasury of studies of Baltic culture.

Marija Razmukaitė

IN MEMORY OF TERJE MATHIASSEN

(1938–1999)

A tragic fate seems to pursue the Baltic scholars of Scandinavia. Not so long ago, the terrible diseases of our age prematurely carried off the Norwegian Helge Rinholm and the Icelander Jörundur Hilmarsson. And now we mourn again: after a long struggle, cancer finally claimed Terje Mathiassen, professor at the University of Oslo, on January 9, 1999. All three were not only good friends, scholars of the Baltic languages, and pupils of the great Norwegian Balticist Christian S. Stang, but also the most sincere friends of our nation.

Mathiassen was born in Oslo on April 12, 1938. He graduated from secondary school in 1957. At first he wanted to study Latin and mathematics. However, in those days it was harder to combine studies in these subjects, and Mathiassen decided to study Russian, German, and Norwegian philology at the University of Oslo. Besides Chr. S. Stang, one of his teachers there was the famous Norwegian Iranist Georg Morgenstierne. Mathiassen completed his general studies with a master’s degree in 1962. His subsequent interest in Slavic studies, and partly also in Baltic studies, was, one might say, determined by NATO. During his military service, Mathiassen had the opportunity to complete very good Russian-language courses organized by NATO (he completed them alongside Norway’s future Minister of Defence). Our aforementioned H. Rinholm had also completed such courses. In 1964, Mathiassen spent five months furthering his studies in Leningrad. The deceased used to recall that the first visa to Leningrad was issued to him by Vytautas Burkauskas, a Lithuanian employee of the USSR embassy in Norway. By 1965, Mathiassen had become a candidate of philology. From 1966 to 1971, he was a scholarship holder at the University of Oslo—

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…diant. In 1970 he was awarded a doctorate in philosophy for his dissertation, “Studies in the Long Vowelism of Slavic and Indo-European Languages.” Soon his dissertation was published as a separate book (Studien zum slavischen und indoeuropäischen Langvokalismus. Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø, 1974). Chr. S. Stang was the dissertation’s official opponent.

Mathiassen’s active teaching career began in 1971. At the University of Oslo he taught courses in Russian, Church Slavonic, Lithuanian, and Latvian, as well as an introduction to Baltic philology. He learned Lithuanian and Latvian not only theoretically but also practically. In 1982, thanks to his efforts, a course in Lithuanian was introduced at the University of Oslo as a separate subject (previously, Lithuanian had been taught irregularly as part of Indo-European studies). In 1991, again largely thanks to his efforts, lectureships in Lithuanian and Latvian were established at the university. Philologists from Lithuania and Latvia came to teach there.

In 1978 Mathiassen was elected a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. In 1985 he was awarded the title of professor. From 1987 he was a member of the International Committee of Slavists. From 1992 to 1994 he headed a University of Oslo project supporting the Baltic countries. In 1996 the Latvian Academy of Sciences elected him a foreign member.

A considerable number of Mathiassen’s most important publications are connected with his teaching activities. First, one should mention his comprehensive Russian grammar (Russisk Grammatikk, Oslo, 1990; 2nd ed., 1996) and the Lithuanian and Latvian grammars aptly dubbed “twins” by Latvian linguist Janis Valdmanis (A Short Grammar of Lithuanian. Columbus, 1996¹; A Short Grammar of Latvian. Columbus, 1997²).

Together with another Norwegian linguist, Siri Sverdrup Lunden, Mathiassen edited Valerij Berkov’s Russian-Norwegian dictionary, published in Moscow in 1987 (Русско-норвежский словарь. Russisk-norsk ordbok). Perhaps we will soon see another lexicographical work, to which Mathiassen will also have contributed a great deal of painstaking work. This is what Professor Evalda Jakaitienė, one of its editors, says about the work: “Since 1996 he had been one of the leaders of a new project at the University of Oslo’s Institute for East European Studies and Orientalism, ‘Lithuanian-Norwegian / Norwegian-Lithuanian Dictionary.’ Mathiassen not only took care of the project group’s organizational matters, but was also an excellent adviser, because he had an exceptionally fine ear for the shades and nuances of Norwegian words, was extremely industrious, and revised the same text many times, seeking the most precise Lithuanian equivalent for each Norwegian word. The dictionary is not yet finished, and its compilers will constantly miss the qualified comments, perceptive advice, and kindly suggestions of their colleague”³.

¹ Sabaliauskas A., Valeika L. (Rec.). – Baltistica, 1997, 32 (1), 133–136.

² Rosinas A. (Rec.). – Baltistica, 1997, 32 (2), 256–258.

³ Jakaitienė E. Profesorius Terjė Matiasenas. – Gimtoji kalba, 1999, 2, 21–23.

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Mathiassen published numerous articles in periodicals in various countries on issues in the historical morphology, phonetics, syntax, and lexicon of the Baltic and Slavic languages, as well as on linguistic relations.⁴

At a session of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 1981, Mathiassen delivered a paper on the languages and culture of the Baltic peoples. The paper was published in the Academy’s proceedings. He took part in many scholarly conferences in Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Canada, and the United States.

Mathiassen visited Lithuania many times. When he came to Lithuania in the autumn of 1991, he was delighted that this time he no longer needed a visa. In 1994 he spent three weeks in our country together with his wife, Anna Maria Mathiassen, who was also very interested in Lithuania. He particularly enjoyed the trip to the Curonian Spit, near the places where his teacher Christian S. Stang and Jurgis Gerulis had once studied a Lithuanian fishermen’s dialect that has now completely disappeared.

The author of this short article remembers travelling with Professor Zigmas Zinkevičius to the airport on September 24, 1975, to meet Mathiassen. At that time, no one in Lithuania knew the Norwegian linguist. To attract the stranger’s attention, we held in our hands his recently published book. When one of the passengers saw the book, he smiled and came over to us. That was the beginning of Mathiassen’s friendship with Lithuania. Terje Mathiassen fondly recalled that meeting and the friends who welcomed him in his paper at the Eighth International Congress of Balticists in Vilnius (October 9, 1997). Unfortunately, that paper also marked the linguist’s final meeting with our country and with his many friends here. It is hard to come to terms with the thought that this wonderful man, who did so much good for Lithuania, is no longer among us.

Algirdas Sabaliauskas

⁴ Mathiassen T. Die Personalendungen im baltischen Verbum unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der 2. P. Sg. lit. – lett. *je und die indoeuropäische Grundlage. Versuch einer neuen Deutung. – Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, 1975, 29, 199–205; О происхождении форм причастий на -ęs, -ę в литовском языке, -is в латышском языке. – Baltistica, 1976, 12 (1), 43–50; Сколько было в прабалтийском основных типов словесного ударения – два или три? – Baltistica, 1983, 19 (2), 108–113; A Discussion of the Notion ‘Sprachbund’ and its Application in the Eastern Baltic Area (Slavic, Baltic, and West Finnish). – International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics, 1985, 31–32, 273–281; An Unorthodox View of the 1. P. Sg. Subjunctive (Optative) in Lithuanian. – Baltistica, 1993, 28 (1), 5–8; Prepozicinis nagų valdomas kilmininkas baltų, Pabaltijo suomių ir skandinavų kalbose (istorinė apžvalga). – Baltistica, 1993, 28 (2), 21–26; Nochmals zum ie- Komplex im Ostbaltischen. – Linguistica Baltica, 1995, 4, 41–53; Some Aspects of the History of Lithuanian and Latvian Grammatical Terminology. – Baltistica V Priedas, 1998, 169–176, and others.

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