Exegit monumentum

you used an anonymous manuscript of the mid-17th century "Lexicon Lithuanicum". This would be shown by the author’s handwritten additions to the dictionary, which Prof. V. Drotvinas divides into groups in terms of content: “1) new heading words with Lithuanian equivalents; 2) synonyms of those equivalents, variants of construction or substitution, and 3) illustrations of the usage of Lithuanian words (usually Bible sentences in German and Lithuanian- )" (p. XII). In addition to the author’s handwritten additions, Prof. V. Drotvinas also distinguishes in his “Notes...” notes which are also “usually added to the title words or their equivalents, otherwise some kind of grammatical notes”, but these notes are “written in a completely different handwriting than the whole dictionary, not calligraphically, but as if in haste, in smaller letters, in ink of varying brightness, usually after Lithuanian words or between lines” (p. XII). Prof. V. Drotvin counts more than two hundred such entries in the entire dictionary. Having indicated that the authors are not identified, the author of “Clavis...” speculates that part of the notes may have been written by E Pretoriaus son Eryd-rich, who inherited the parish of Žiliai after his father’s death, the other part — by Wilhelm Theodor Schimmelpennig and Christian Friedrich Stimmer, who owned this dictionary, and two or three other persons, and in closing he adds that “The content and authorship of the notes should be specially investigated” (p. XII). This is an extremely interesting and difficult task, because linguists alone are unlikely to be able to determine their authorship. We can't do without the help of graphologists. It is hardly likely that graphologists will be able to elucidate the authorship of these relatively short entries, especially since, for example, no other writings by K. E. Štimeris seem to have survived (cf. Biržiška V. Aleksandrynas 2, Vilnius: Sietynas, 1990, 111). But this can only be said by graphologists. Such doubts show how many unsolved mysteries our ancient writings, especially manuscripts, still hide, and how important they are for the history of our language and culture. Of course, each such publication is an extraordinary event. Therefore, the author of this publication, Prof. V. Drotvinas, deserves the greatest respect and thanks. The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the IMTEC Foundation, financed the publishing house “Clavis...”, the publishing house of science and encyclopedias, which in these times of global materialization decided to publish an invaluable book for our language science. One would like to hope that the other volumes of E. Pretorius- ’s dictionary, prepared long ago by Prof. V. Drotvinas, will have a favourable fate. Joseph Karaceus EXEGIT MONUMENTUM / On March 16, 1996, Kazys Ulvydas, PhD in Humanities, Corresponding Member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, died. One of the most brilliant centers of Lithuanian science that survived the interwar period of Independent Lithuania, Zarija, which shone with all its brightness during the long years of 272 occupation and ignited the flame of love for the Lithuanian language in the hearts of many Lithuanian linguists and not only linguists, died. According to K. Ulvydas himself, he was born on August 15, 1910 (in the old style; the new style date was not pleasant to him) in Kėdainiai district, Bagotėlė palivarke, in a large family of Kumečiai. Therefore, he had to go to school relying on his own strength. After finishing four classes at Kėdainiai gymnasium, K. Ulvydas went to Kaunas, where he managed to enter the Jesuit gymnasium. The level of education was high, so K. Ulvydas received a solid foundation in the humanities here. In 1930, he graduated from the high school and entered the Faculty of Humanities of Vytautas Magnus University. At the time, the university already had a number of local and foreign scientists, so there were good study conditions for gifted students. At the same time, he began teaching Lithuanian language at the same Jesuit gymnasium. This workload of the student and the teacher prolonged the studies, but it also made it possible to use the acquired knowledge immediately in school and avoid the superficiality that is often characteristic of students who learn only during sessions. In 1937, Ulvydas was called into the army and became an aspirant of the Military School. Here he immediately stands out from his classmates in his abilities and, being at least slightly older, acquires great authority. His knowledge was used by the editors of “Kariūnas” magazine. It is worth noting that K. Ulvydas first celebrated his last (85th) birthday with his fellow scientists, who never forgot him, and planted an oak tree with them as a symbol of his life. After finishing his military studies in 1938, K. Ulvydas again started working as a Lithuanianist, this time at Kaunas School of Commerce, where he was deputy director of the school from 1944 to 1946. In 1940, he graduated from Vilnius University with a diploma thesis entitled "Augmeninės ir gyvūninės pavardės". After graduating as a Lithuanianist in 1942, he was invited to teach at Kaunas University. In 1946, he became a senior lecturer at the Faculty of History and Philology, in 1946-1949 he held the post of vice-dean, and in 1949, until the faculty was transferred to Vilnius, he also held the post of dean. There he taught basic Lithuanian language courses. Since 1949, K. Ulvydas has had to commute to work at Vilnius University. Only in 1951 he and his family moved to Vilnius and he completely immersed himself in linguistic research activities, which lasted for four decades. At Vilnius University he was soon elected head of the Lithuanian Language Department, began working at the Lithuanian Language Institute of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and entered the Moscow University postgraduate program. In 1952, after the merger of the Institutes of Lithuanian Language and Lithuanian Literature, K. Ulvydas became Deputy Director of the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature and Head of the Department of Language History and Dialectology, giving up the position of Head of the Department of Lithuanian Language, remaining only for some time as Senior Lecturer. 273 In 1955, K. Ulvydas’s position changed again — he gave up purely administrative work and became head of the Dictionaries Department. In the same year, he defended his dissertation “Modern Lithuanian language adverbs (singular adverbs)”. In 1960 he was appointed head of the newly organized Department of Contemporary Lithuanian Language, and from 1976 to 1987 he again headed the Department of Dictionaries. In 1972, K. Ulvydas was elected a corresponding member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. All these shifts in duties are not accidental. They were determined by the circumstances: he had to go where there was a gap, where it was the most difficult. In 1950, the Lithuanian Language Institute began a huge project – the preparation of the Lithuanian Language Atlas. But first we had to organize the collection of material from all over Lithuania. It was necessary to draw up a program and a material collection instruction. After moving to Vilnius, K. Ulvydas takes over this job and successfully puts it back on track. When the second volume of the Lithuanian Language Dictionary, published in 1947, was heavily criticized, the dictionarist team of the Lithuanian Language Institute was dispersed, the edition of the Lithuanian Language Dictionary was suspended, and its head, J. Balčikonis, was removed. A man was needed who would be able to reorganize the Lithuanian language dictionary according to the requirements of the Communist Party, as it was said, “according to the principles of Soviet lexicography”. In 1955, K. Ulvydas dared to undertake this work, determined to treat this even more painful disease. K. Ulvydas’s ability to argue helped to preserve the little-changed structure of the Lithuanian language dictionary. The standard sentences of the Soviet press and writings in the illustrations of the dictionary satisfied the ambitions of the critics. And the main material of the dictionary — facts of dialects and records of ancient writings — was preserved. The Lithuanian language dictionary, which had been vegetating for almost 10 years, has started to go again. Having thus normalized the work of the Lithuanian language dictionary, it was possible to undertake another major task of linguistics — the preparation of the Lithuanian language grammar. There was no better organizer than K. Ulvydas. The work was started, you can say, in an empty place. First of all, we had to mobilize the employees. As a university lecturer, K. Ulvydas met many talented students. He was also involved in the work of the district schools. With everybody who wanted to work first in the field of vocabulary, and later in the field of grammar, K. Ulvydas would have a sincere conversation and, without the interlocutor- ’s perception, would ascertain his knowledge and readiness for scientific work. He sent many young aspirant linguists to Moscow and St. Petersburg language research centers to prepare for this work. He himself has supervised six doctoral candidates who have defended their dissertations. His students filled the section of dictionaries, his students made up the entire section of contemporary Lithuanian language, who wrote Lithuanian grammar. He managed to involve in the writing of some chapters and his students working in higher schools. Moreover, many of the authors of the grammar themselves became lecturers and professors at higher schools. 274 K. Ulvydas provided all possible conditions for this. Extensive scientific and editorial K. Ulvydo darbai. He was Lithuanian language dictionary nine volumes (II-V, XI-XVI) editor-in-chief of two more ir volumes (VI-VII) editorial board member, member of the editorial board of all three editions of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language Dictionary (1954, 1972, 1993). The wise words of K. Ulvydas often cooled hot debates and was very useful for the common good. K. Ulvydas — chief editor of all three volumes of the Lithuanian grammar, author of the introduction and the adverb section of the Grammar. This required not only scientific knowledge, but also great organizational talents. The works of various authors, of different scientific level, followers of different theories, writing in their own style, had to be scientifically processed, standardized, so that the coherence of the work could be felt, while not damaging the individuality of the authors, — this is not such a simple thing. 17 years of painstaking work resulted in the first three-volume scientific grammar of the Lithuanian language written in Lithuanian. Regardless of the position he held and the work he did, K. Ulvydas was a cultivator of Lithuanian language culture throughout his life. Since 1961 he has been the responsible editor of the collection of articles "Language Culture" for thirty years. He has published many articles. Many of them were programmatic and necessary guidelines for those working in language culture. Also for thirty years K. Ulvydas was the host of the radio show “Let’s speak and write correctly- ”. It was one of the most popular weekly shows. The listeners overwhelmed K. Ulvydas with questions, and he always carefully prepared answers for them. The texts prepared for these broadcasts could have become a very valuable textbook of language culture. But K. Ulvydas never had the time to prepare this book. This program was discontinued when K. Ulvydas began to argue reasonably that it is not appropriate to teach children a second language in kindergartens. K. Ulvydas has been a member of the editorial boards of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, the Lithuanian Language and Literature Institute- ’s continuing publication “Literature and Language- ”, the Lithuanian Linguistics Bibliographic Index, the writings of K. Donelaitis and other works. In general, he consulted every interested person in a distance, regardless of his busyness and without looking at the clock. Having started his scientific work with the study of Lithuanian adverbs, K. Ulvydas was constantly collecting material for a major work on adverbs. But through all the organizational and editing work he never found even a little longer time to sit down and study the vast material of adverbs he had accumulated. One of his many disciples should now undertake this work in memory of his teacher. It should be mentioned that K. Ulvydas has participated in many conferences and symposia not only in Lithuania but also abroad. He has given lectures in Ashgabat, Kiev, Chisinau, Moscow, Prague, St. Petersburg, Riga and elsewhere, has visited the language institutes of almost all the former Soviet republics in order to get acquainted with their work. He took great care to adapt the effective working methodology practiced by other institutes and the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literatu275 at work. Only for the introduction of various innovations there were no conditions. K. Ulvydas loved to promote language practice. He always spoke very powerfully, interestingly. Therefore, he was constantly invited to give lectures to various collectives. Jo re has listened to the live word ir American Lithuanians. Even after his retirement, K. Ulvydas did not break his ties with the Lithuanian Language Institute. He was a member of the editorial board of "Language Culture", almost until the last year was elected a member of the Institute- 's scientific council, where his authoritative word was always appreciated. In February 1996, K. Ulvydas was honoured with the Order of Gediminas. And with his works he himself built an everlasting monument. Rest in peace in the land of Vilnius. The two-letter abbreviation Er added to many words and sentences in the great “Dictionary of the Lithuanian language” is a modest, but long-lasting monument to two linguists who came from the village of Ėriškiai (Panevėžys region). One of them was Juozas Balčikonis, a well-known pedagogue and a continuation of the work of Jon Jablonskis and Kazimieras Būga, and the other was his relative Antanas Lyberis. The latter, choosing the path of life, was undoubtedly influenced by the living word of the older local man and his increasing authority. After graduating from Panevėžys Gymnasium in 1928, A. Lyberis decided to continue his studies at Vytautas the Great University in 1932, choosing classical philology. Like many young people at the time, Lybers had to earn a living while studying. Just after starting his studies, he was invited to work in the editorial office of the Lithuanian language dictionary, which the Ministry of Education had entrusted to J. Balčikonis in late 1930. The editorial office was like a second university for A. Lyber, giving him theoretical knowledge of lexicography and practical skills of dictionary work. Here he had to learn how to collect words from the living language and various scripts, manage the rapidly filling up of the vocabulary inherited from K. Buga, get used to writing the text of the dictionary, read proofreading, perform other work. In the “Talk” of the first volume of the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language” (which included the words of the letters A-B) published in 1941, the editor-in-- chief J. Balčikonis named “the closest collaborators of the editorial staff, without whose honest work and dedication this volume of the dictionary could not have appeared- ”. Among these collaborators —and A. Lybers. Later on, A. Lyberis would tell younger generations of linguists many interesting and warm stories about other members of the dictionary’s editorial staff at that time – Napalis Grigas, Elza Mikalauskaitė, Jonas Mikeliūnas, Juozas Senkas, Zenonas Uoseli, Kostas Vosylius, and others. The years of war and occupation distracted the small Lithuanian language dictionary re276