Jānis Endzelīns, Darbu izlase, I, Riga, 1971, 728 pp.
It would probably be very difficult to find a language in whose scholarship one person played as immense a role as Jānis Endzelīns (1873—1961) played in Latvian linguistics. For more than half a century, this scholar guided (in the fullest sense of the word) the study of the Latvian language; even now, several decades after his death, Latvian linguistics, viewed from the outside, still seems to remain in the shadow of this distinguished linguist. Perhaps this is always what happens when a great personality passes from the scene without leaving successors capable of continuing his work on an equal footing.
We have long awaited J. Endzelīns’s collected writings and, of course, are very glad at last to have received their first volume. This volume publishes J. Endzelīns’s studies from 1897—1906, including such well-known works as „Латышские предлоги“ (Parts I—II), „Исследования в области кашубского языка“, „Латышские заимствования из славянских языков“, „Über den lettischen Silbenakzent“ and many others. Also printed here is J. Endzelīns’s first article directly related to Lithuanian studies, namely, a review of V. Požežinskis’s book „Возвратная форма глаголов в литовском и латышском языках“.
J. Endzelīns’s writings are published in the languages in which they were written, with phonetic transcription and abbreviations standardized and various notes added that the author himself made later.
Judging by the first volume, J. Endzelīns’s writings have been prepared with great care. The only regret is that, having picked up the first volume, we somehow miss a more extensive article about this distinguished Latvian linguist and his place in Baltic linguistics. It is stated, to be sure, that the final—fourth—volume of the collected writings will contain a “chronicle of J. Endzelīns’s life and work.” Yet a chronicle, however extensive, will still be unable to provide a comprehensive assessment of this scholar. A new bibliography of J. Endzelīns’s works, as well as of the literature about him, would also be useful, since the bibliographies published in 1958 and 1959 contain gaps, and the literature on J. Endzelīns has grown considerably over the past several decades.
The editors of J. Endzelīns’s writings also say nothing about a subject index and a word index. As the experience of K. Būga’s „Rinktinių raštų“ (edited by Z. Zinkevičius) has shown, such indexes greatly enhance the usefulness of a publication.
On this occasion, one would like to remind Latvian linguists of another debt to Jānis Endzelīns: the second volume of Part One of „Latvijas PSR vietvārdi“ (letters K—O) appeared in 1961; there is still no word about the third volume—isn’t the interval too long? Of course, it is much easier to remind and express wishes than to fulfill them.
The publication of J. Endzelīns’s collected writings is the finest tribute to the great Latvian scholar, the best event to mark the centenary of his birth.
J. Endzelīns’s writings were compiled and edited by his former students R. Gryslė, D. Zemzarė (1911—1971), V. Dambė and M. Brencė, and published by the A. Upītis Institute of Language and Literature of the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences.
The first volume of J. Endzelīns’s writings cries out for a more extensive, comprehensive discussion. These brief annotative remarks were intended only to share first impressions and the first pleasures that arise as one leafs through the pages of this highly valuable work of Baltic philology.
A. Sabaliauskas
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