Antano Lyberio ir jo darbų atminimui

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 the living word has listened ir American Lithuanians. After his retirement, K. Ulvydas did not break his ties with the staff of 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 a small group of editors of the Lithuanian language 276 dictionary. 1942 m. Kaunas leaves ir A. Lyberis. It starts working In Prienai “Ziburio” high school teacher, 1946-1947 m. — director of this school. During the difficult ir post-war years, he ir taught a class of students, į from whom grew up the ne linguist Jonas Kazlauskas, the poet Justinas Marcinkevičius, the writer Vytautas Bubnys, a group of well-known teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, economists and other specialists. Work at school did not distance A. He was a ir prominent figure in Lithuanian language science at the time. In 1950 he helped the Lithuanian Language Institute to organize the first dialectological expedition in the Prienai area, led by J. Balčikonis and B. Larinas. During the conference, the “Program for the collection of material for the Lithuanian language atlas” (published in 1951, 2nd edition — 1956) was tested in practice. A. Lyberis’s help was very useful to the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences’ organizational committee, which was searching for a part of the Lithuanian language dictionary that had been saved from the horrors of the war and safely hidden by A. Salis, the director of the Lithuanian Language Institute (see Mūsų kalba, 1972, No. 2, pp. 26-31). From 1947 A. Lyberis was not only a teacher, but also a full-time employee of the Lithuanian Language Institute (from 1952 Lithuanian Language and Literature Institute- ). In Vilnius he frequently participates in meetings of the Lithuanian language dictionary compilers and editors, in Prienai he writes or edits the dictionary text written by other collaborators from the card library boxes he brought with him, and reads press proofs. In the last decades, A. Lyberis, living permanently in Vilnius, was one of the main editors of the great "Dictionary of Lithuanian Language- ". His name — as a member of the editorial board or as the author of the text, performer of other works — is recorded in 12 volumes of this dictionary. In 1965 he was awarded the Lithuanian State Prize for the volumes III-VI of the dictionary. A. Lyberis was one of the compilers and editors of another work of great importance for language practice — the Dictionary of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language (1954; 2nd edition — 1972). In Prienai, A. Lyberis began to take an interest in the synonymy of words, wrote and in 1959 defended his candidate (now doctoral) dissertation "The Lithuanian language synonyms dictionary and its compilation principles". A couple of years later, his “Thesaurus of Lithuanian Language Synonyms” appeared in the press. In the introductory article of the first dictionary of this type in the history of Lithuanian lexicography, the author wrote: “The vocabulary of Lithuanian language is very rich and diverse. In addition to the oldest Lithuanian words, close to the Indo-European protolanguage, the Lithuanian language contains a huge number of words that originated from ancient roots in various epochs. However, the richness of the Lithuanian language is not only the quantity of words, but also the variety of their meanings, their clarity, the abundance of synonymous means." In this dictionary, in an effort to clearly show the aforementioned characteristics of the Lithuanian language, 720 synonymous words are presented. Twenty years later (1981) A. Lyberis published a much wider “Thesaurus of Synonyms”, which contains about 5200 synonym277 ous word groups, covering over 27 000 words and phraseologisms. A. Lyberis has not forgotten the young people in education. Together with N. Grigas he compiled and published the “Lithuanian Spelling Dictionary for Schools” (6 editions were published in 1956-1980), with Pr. Kniūkšta — "Teaching Dictionary of Lithuanian Spelling and Pronunciation" (4 editions were published in 1983-1996), with V. Kosuchinas — "Lithuanian-Russian Language Dictionary" (1956), with K. Gaivenis and V. Šerna — "School Lithuanian-Russian Language Dictionary" (1985). A. Lyberis also compiled a larger Lithuanian-Russian dictionary for the 65000 general public, the first edition of which (1962) contained about 37,000 words, and the second edition (1989), which was revised and supplemented, about 100,000 words. As a student, A. Lyberis began to collaborate with “Naujoji Romuva” (perhaps his first publication, which appeared in 1935, introduced the public to J. Jablonskio Raštai, published by J. Balčikonis- ), and later published a number of articles in scientific publications and periodicals on Lithuanian lexicography, lexicology, terminology, language culture and other issues, significant memories from the history of Lithuanian linguistics and about individual linguists. On November 6, 1996, Lybers met his 87th birthday after almost six years of severe illness, and November 22 was the last day of his life. In Vilnius Karveliskiai cemetery a large group of relatives, students, colleagues and friends said goodbye to a long-time, beautifully accomplished linguist, a teacher and a man of bright memory. Antanas Lyberis and his works have entered into the history of Lithuanian linguistics. IN MEMORIAM RUDOLFAS GRABIS (1906-1996) 1996 was a year of painful losses for Latvian linguists: professor Marta Rudzyte of the University of Latvia left her beloved field of research too early, a Latgalian who had grown up in emigration did not finish the work he had begun, professor Valdis Zepas of the University of Wisconsin, who had celebrated his ninetyth birthday beautifully, and Rūdolfs Grabis, one of the most famous Latvian language researchers of the last decades, who had completed his earthly journey decorated with valuable works, also passed away on December 17. R. Grabis was born on August 11, 1906 in Grigzai, in the former Kūdumo village (Cėsių district). He graduated from the University of Latvia in 1934. His teachers were Anna Abele, Ludvis Berzins, Janis Endzelyns and other prominent Latvian philologists of the time. In 1931, in the journal of the Latvian Philological Society “Filologu biedribas raksti”, edited by J. Endzelyns, was published the first serious publication of R. Grabis, still a student, a description of his native dialect (“Kūduma pagasta izloksnes apraksts- ”). In 1935 the same journal published another dialectological article by R. Grabis “Notes on Straupes parish dialects” (“Piezimes par Straupes draudzes izloksnē”). He taught at Riga Gymnasium and Riga Teachers' Institute. 278