Profesoriaus Antano Salio atminimui

LITHUANIAN LINGUISTICAL QUESTIONS, XXXIV (1994) LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE DIARCHEMS AND THEIR STUDIES Williamas SCHMALSTIEGAS TO THE MEMORY OF PROFESSOR ANTANAS SALIS I sincerely regret that I cannot be with you today, but I am grateful to my good friend and colleague Algirdas Sabaliauskas for the translation. into Lithuanian language of short memories about one of my beloved professors- “. Since there will soon be a conference dedicated to the memory of Professor Jonas Kazlauskas, I will say something about him as well. My first real contact with Lithuanian culture began in the autumn of 1950, when I entered the University of Pennsylvania as a postgraduate student. During the first semester my professors were Alfred Senn (Slavonic Philology Seminar), Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius (Russian (Russian conversation and composition), Soviet Russian literature), Franz Rosenthal (Arabic), Carlton Coon (Anthropology) and Antanas Sa-| lys (Bulgarian). Since the Slavic language departments were small at that time, each faculty member had to perform a lot of tasks. Therefore, Prof. A. Salys taught a course of contemporary Bulgarian language. In this course we used the famous Russian Slavist S. B. Bernstein’s *I’paMmMaTiiKka 5onrapceroro si3pika”. Prof. Salys arrived at the University of Pennsylvania after the Second World War, invited by Prof. Senno, who in the late 1940s was tasked with establishing the Slavic Languages Department. In addition to his former student A. Salis, A. Senn also invited V. Krėvė-Mickevičius and P. Skardžius, but there were rumours that the latter refused because he did not want to work with Senn. My first impression of Mr Šalys was positive. The professor was extremely caring and diligent. He gave us, the students, not only a good foundation in Bulgarian, but also in general linguistics. He spoke quite slowly, but loudly and clearly. Although his English was with a slight accent, no one had any difficulty understanding him. (It was different with V. Krėvė-Mickevičius, whom I never really heard speaking English. Since I did not speak Lithuanian in my first year at the University of Pennsylvania, I always spoke Russian with V. Kreve-Mickevičius. Prof. V. Krėvė-Mickevičius knew Latin very well and probably could read English easily, but I got the impression that speaking English was extremely difficult for him.) Prof. A. Salys seemed always in a good mood and friendly, prepared * Schmalstieg W. R. To the memory of Professor Antanas Salys //Lituanus, 1992. V. 38, N= 3. P. 58-68. 44 spend a lot of time explaining to us, clumsy American students, all sorts of things about grammar or linguistics in general. It seemed to me that it was a man with a smile on his face. In the second semester I studied many of the subjects I had started in the first, but instead of Soviet Russian literature, I took the course of old Russian literature by V. Krėvė-Mickevičius. (In it, V. Krėvė-Mickevičius tried to clarify the complexities of the medieval Russian epic, "The Tales of the March of Igor"). Instead of anthropology with Prof. A. Salis I started studying Prussian language — my first Baltic language. The University of Pennsylvania bookshop somehow managed to obtain several copies of J. Endzelyno "Altpreussische Grammatik" (Riga, 1944). We used this grammar as a textbook. I still have a copy that I bought back then. The second cover page reads: Auflage 1000. It should now be a bibliographical rarity. There were only five or six students in our group, but I remember only two — a certain William Gibbon, a native American like myself, and Antanas Klimas, whom I met in 1950 and have been friends with ever since. It was probably difficult for Prof. A. Sali to explain elementary Baltic philology through the Prussian language. But in the end, apparently, he succeeded, because he once said that he thought I was beginning to understand what he was trying to convey. I always studied diligently and got good enough grades, but nothing was easy for me and often I did not understand the essence of the lecture immediately. After one year at the University of Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1951 I moved to Columbia University, where I studied with the famous French linguist André Martinet. In the spring of 1952 I was called up for military service and only in the fall of 1954 I was able to return to the University of Pennsylvania. I immediately started attending the Lithuanian, Polish and Old Slavic language courses of Prof. A. Salis. In 1954-55 four students attended the Lithuanian language course, among them was my good friend Samuel Levin, now a well-known professor of English linguistics in New York. During that academic year, S. Levinas, Kostas Ostrauskas (sometimes also Vincas Maciūnas) and I would often meet in the hall of the University of Pennsylvania library at about three o’clock in the afternoon to chat. Our trio, i.e. S. Levinas, K. Ostrauskas and I called ourselves the Club of Lithuanian Patriots, whose motto was "Chicago today — the world tomorrow". Our Lithuanian textbook was written in Lithuanian only, and we used it mainly for learning paradigms, since there was no comprehensive Lithuanian textbook in English. I think the textbook was written by Rev. J. Starkauskas, but I am not sure, because I do not know where the textbook is now. Prof. A. Salys understood the difficulties of Lithuanian grammar for English-speaking students, so he translated most of the grammar subjects for us during the exercises. I think that we all got a good foundation of Lithuanian grammar, although Prof. A. Salys did not pay attention to the spoken language. He corrected our writings quickly and carefully, as if he never tired of pointing out our elementary errors. At that time we read the minographed Lithuanian texts, some of which were eventually published as the second edition of Prof. A. Senno's "Handbuch der litauischen Sprache" (Heidelberg, 1990). 45 1957) Toms. From a reprinted copy of this book, K. Ostrauskas persuaded me to put into my tape recorder Lazdynai Pelėda’s “Pirslybas”, which I listened to many times when I opened it in an attempt to learn the spoken language. From this course S. Levin remembers particularly well the saying “You cannot show the blind the way” (now A. Senno Handbuch II, 19) and whenever I meet S. Levin, he repeats this saying to me. I'm afraid he might think that this adverb applies to me. (Samuel Levin, an English linguist, should not be confused with Jules Levin, a Baltist.) Prof. A. Salys taught the courses of Old Slavic and Polish language with the same methodological care as the other courses, but in teaching he was guided by American practice and allowed students to interrupt him at any time with their questions. A student once asked him how he had learned Polish. A. Salys replied that he listened to radio broadcasts when he was still living in Lithuania. I saw Professor A. Saly in a bad mood only once, when a policeman fined him for parking his car in the wrong place — he was the only one in the whole block to be punished, although the other cars were also parked in the wrong place. Initially, Prof. A. Salys was supposed to be the supervisor of my dissertation, but due to some administrative problems, it was decided that Prof. A. Sennas would be my supervisor. I often went to Prof. Sali for help and both Sennas and Salys attended my final doctoral exams. You can imagine my upset when the problem of the Lithuanian word kūnigas arose. Prof. A. Sennas claimed that in this word there was never a nasal element after the second vowel, i.e. there was never *kuningas or something like that, but A. Salys thought the opposite. During the exam, I was asked for my opinion. Without wanting to take sides, I replied that there was something to be said in favour of both approaches. In 1956, after receiving my doctorate, I went to work at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. I was still in contact with Prof. A. Salih after I left Pennsylvania. Now he proposed to translate J. Endzelyno's "Baltu valodu skanas un formas" into English with his help. The professor thought that we could add some Lithuanian language paradigms, and then this book would also be suitable for a Lithuanian language course, which lacked a textbook in English. He found me the Lithuanian translation of "Baltic languages sounds and forms", originally prepared under the direction of Jon Kazlauskas, and I started this project. Finally, A. Salys withdrew from this work and I finished it with the help of Latvian linguist Benjaminis Jégeris. This work continued for a long time and was finally published in 1971 under the title "Janis Endzelins’ Comparative Phonology and Morphology of the Baltic Languages” (The Hague, Paris: Mouton). I wrote to Prof. Sulley regularly and had the opportunity to see her quite often, especially after I returned to Pennsylvania and taught at the University of Pennsylvania. I studied at Lafayette College in Easton, and later at The Pennsylvania State University, where I am currently studying. He advised me and borrowed books from his personal library when I was writing the article "Lithuanian" (p. 287—300) for Thom A. Sebeok's edited book "Current Trends in Linguistics" (1963, The Hague: Mouton). At the time, none of us knew what the initial A. prie Sabaliauskas meant. Prof. A. Salys said that he believed that Albinas could be here. Yes our good friend 46 Algirdas Sabaliauskas became Albinas in this article. Turning through my papers, I discovered that I have about a dozen letters from Prof. A. Gali, written from 1966 to March 27, 1972. He was always interested in helping Lithuanian linguists travel, if possible. In a letter dated December 30, 1966 he wrote: "Neither Kazlauskas nor Mažiulis can 'put their nose out' abroad [...] I am only surprised that Rector Kubilius at the opening ceremony of the academic year at Vilnius University [...] mentioned as true facts that Kazlauskas and Mažiulis are going to the USA and France. Apparently, the rector was playing poker here. Without Moscow- ’s consent, he made everything public and famous, so that Moscow would be uncomfortable not to release it later. And not releasing them would again show Moscow- ’s stupid stubbornness and lack of confidence even in official party members (both Kazlauskas and Mažiulis are party members and will have joined most likely for career reasons). If they still don't release, everyone in Vilnius will talk a lot about ir it and curse "ruskius". I should add here that neither Prof. A. Salys nor I thought that there was anything reprehensible in being a member of a party. It seemed to us that it was simply a fact of life that anyone who wanted to keep Lithuanian culture alive in the Soviet Union had a better chance of doing so as a member of the party. I remember trying to encourage some of my Lithuanian friends to become members of the party in the 1970s. On the other hand, do not think that I was ever a communist or that I supported communist views. I think many of my colleagues at Pennsylvania State University consider me to be extremely conservative. On April 5–6, 1968, a conference on Baltic linguistics was held at Pennsylvania State University, the first on the North American continent. I have invited many prominent speakers: Antanas Klima, Leonardas Dambriūnas, Gordon B. Ford, Eric P. Hampas, B. Jaeger, Alfredas Senna, Calvert Watkins, Warren Cowgill, Valdis Zepa, Henning Andersen, James W. Marchand, Joseph Leli, David Robinson, Jona Kazlauska, Vytautas Maziuli and Antanas Sali. All the invitees came, except for D. Robinson (who was not in the USA at the time) and J. Kazlauskas and V. Maziuli, who were not allowed to travel to the United States. A. Salys read the report "Some remarks on the development of Lithuanian dialects", but unfortunately did not submit it to the press, which is why it is not in the book "Baltic Linguistics" (University Park and London, The Pensylvania State University Press, 1970), a book that was dedicated to Alfred Senn, whom we called the Nestor of Baltic Studies in the United States of America. But on the other hand, we were happy to be able to publish here J. Kazlauskas' article "On the Balto-Slavic Dative Plural and Dual", p. 87—91. Several other papers not read at the conference have also been included in this book. Later we were delighted to receive a very favorable review from V. Mažiulis. I noticed that the letters written to me by Prof. A. Salis are in Lithuanian, while the typed ones are in English. This is explained by the fact that the secretary of the University of Pennsylvania section printed his English letters, but did not print his Lithuanian letters. Before my first trip to Lithuania he wrote in English (August 2, 1968): "I think you will meet many of my former colleagues and students, such as J. Balčikonis, J. Kruopa, K. Ulvydas, J. Senkas and many others. Please convey my congratulations. Please convey my greetings to the Director of the Institute 47 K. "Corsair". | I had written to A. Sali about J. Kazlauskas' book and he replied in a letter dated August 9, 1968 (in English): "Kazlauskas' book is very interesting and encouraging. I fully agree with his methodology of research: the primary task of a philologist must be to interpret forms based on the internal development of the language and only then to draw conclusions concerning the Baltic or Indo-European languages in general. However, the title of the book is misleading and incorrect. It should be" "Lithuanian language historical grammar questions" or as the Germans would say "Beitrage..." The work is actually a doctoral dissertation in philology. He defended" it this spring, and in the Soviet Union the doctoral dissertation is very significant for the salary. The misleading title is actually more impressive than "Klausimai" and perhaps it was more important for Kazlauskas' career." 4 I had sent Prof. A. Sali a copy of a rather untimely letter dated March 10, 1970. The letter was proposed by L. Bazhanov to the then Vice-Chancellor of Pennsylvania State University, Professor Paul Althouse. It reads: "Due to academic workload (akxaneMuyuecrott 3arpyxxeHHocTbI0) at Vilnius State University, Professor Jonas Kozlauskas (sic!) will not be able to come to Pennsylvania State University in the near future to give lectures on the Lithuanian language course. With respects L. Bazhanov, Head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Ministry of Higher and Special Secondary Education of the USSR". Having received a copy of this letter, Professor A. Salys wrote in a letter dated 30 March 1970: "Conclusion: Rector Kubilius failed to break through the Moscow "steel" curtain. And, of course, the forehead does not scratch the wall. It is good that Moscow has finally responded. The phrase B 61nmxaitmem (!) Gypymenm seems to suggest that something will come out later. Or at least so try to comfort you in your disappointment.” In a letter dated April 10, 1970, A. Salys wrote: "Do not worry about Bažanov- 's letter. You can pick it up and take it to Kazlauskas (the very original!). You can still regret in your letter that Bažanov informed you that Kazlauskas was so "overloaded" with work in Vilnius. Advise them to keep their health and not overwork, because good linguists are so few." Prof. A. Salys helped me prepare for my first visit to Lithuania In 1968, and later in a letter dated June 1, 1970, he asked me to take some illegal books to Prof. K. Korsak. At that time I was a novice, had no dealings with Soviet customs, and was very worried, but since I was a student of Prof. A. Sali, I felt the duty to do it. So I put these books in my suitcase under some English books. When I landed at Sheremetyevo airport, I was in real panic when the customs officer, checking my suitcase, took Lithuanian books and looked at them. It seems to me that he thought these books were English because they were written in Latin. Then he looked me straight in the eye and asked: “EcTs y Bac KHHTH Ha pycCKOM a3pike?” I could answer without lying: “Y MeHs HeT HHKAKHX KHHT” Ha pycckoM s3bike”. Later on I became completely accustomed to transporting illegal Lithuanian books to the Soviet Union and it seemed to me that I was continuing at least a small part of the noble traditions of the old Lithuanian book carriers. Prof. A. Salys also gave me a toy model of a U.S. military aircraft (Sabre Jet airplane) to take to a relative- ’s son. I was also worried about him, because I thought that the image of such a toy could upset the Soviet customs officers. Finally I made a compromise: 48 Miss, removing the U.S. Navy emblem, which showed that the toy was indeed a military aircraft model. Later, I carried several volumes of Prof. A. Salis’s own collected writings through Soviet customs without any obstacles. I even recruited my daughter Roxana for this noble work. In 1986 neither she nor a Soviet customs officer, checking her luggage, realized where the third volume of Sali's "Writing" had been published, although even the cover clearly indicated Rome. Luckily, neither Roxana nor the customs officer were great polyglots, and after a conversation in stammering English she was allowed to pick up the book to finally deliver it. ir į Vilnius. In the above-mentioned letter dated June 1, 1970, Prof. A. Salys, moreover, rages: "I am not even happy to be in trouble with you with that parcel. But maybe someday when I visit Lithuania again (about a couple of years later) I will be able to take something for you." Prof. A. Salys mentioned that he had received an invitation, although rather late, to the Baltic conference in Vilnius in 1970. He suspected that the department secretary had thrown him somewhere. He wrote that Prof. J. Kazlauskas invited him to the same conference. I was asked to thank him very much. However, Prof. A. Salis’s pocket did not allow him to fly to Lithuania every year. He wrote that he would have to wait, save for the trip later. He'll write to me soon about everything. In addition, he asked me to convey to them (Kazlauskas family) his best wishes: they are both so kind, simple, heartfelt. "If I succeed in bringing them to America in any way," he wrote, "tell them that they will be welcome guests. He continued to write that K. Korsakas runs his Institute with a very "strong hand". 'If you need anything, go straight to her'. After Prof. Kazlauskas's death I received a letter (28 December 1970) in which Prof. A. Salys wrote: "The list of speakers at Kazlauskas's funeral is special [...] There was neither Rector Kubilius nor Korsak, nor any Russian who works in the field of Lithuanian studies (and there are several of them) [...] After all, Kazlauskas's death was intended to be passed over in silence. Only, to see how the rumors began to spread, could not remain silent, and "Truth" XII. 4. published that fabricated version of death. So, they were silent for two months." I sent Prof. Sali the obituary that I had written for the journal General Linguistics. He wrote about him: "I do not think your obituary is satisfactory. It seems that you believe the death version published by "The Truth". That would be water on the Soviet mill. They would say, the Americans accept the official version of death for real money, only the 'bourgeois nationalists' publish slander and fabrications'. In a later letter, dated March 11, 1972, he thanked me for the dictionary "Lithuanian-English Glossary of Linguistic Terminology" (Dept. of Slavic Languages, The Pennsylvania State University, 1971), which Prof. A. Klimas and I prepared. Prof. A. Salys found a number of errors, including the presentation of the meaning of the word prefiks (‘person living close to the Dzukish dialect area’). He explained that it was not a person living near the Dzūki, but a place close to them. I visited Prof. Sali maybe a week before he died at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. At that time I had brought a whole package of letters that I had recently received from various Lithuanian linguists — A. Sabaliauskas, Z. Zinkevičius, Mažiulis, Palionis, KaraliūnV. as and J. many S. others. ir He read all these 49 letters with interest, but I saw that he was tired and wanted to rest, so I did not take long. ir Although the loss of his homeland was hard for him, he never complained. I had the impression then; that he felt his death approaching, but he was satisfied with his life. He, as a teacher, scientist, author and Lithuanian ir cultural worker, managed to accomplish so much. Iš English value A. Sabaliauskas 50 sklis aliss a a