Profesoriui Vincentui Drotvinui – 80

370 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 BIRUTĖ TRIŠKAITĖ Institute of Lithuanian Language TO THE PROFESSOR VINCENT DROTVINU – 80 Vincentas Drotvinas, professor of Vilnius Pedagogical University, language historian and researcher of the lexicography of Lesser Lithuania, celebrated his 80th anniversary. On the occasion of this beautiful anniversary, we would like to look back and remember the path taken by the Professor. Vincentas Drotvinas was born on July 10, 1929 in Stakiuosè, Jurbarkas district. Stakias began his education in Raudõnė and Vãdžgiris, and graduated from Maironis Secondary School in Betýgala, Raseiniai district, where his greatest authority was the well-known pedagogue Antanas Juška. Encouraged by his beloved teacher, in 1949 he entered the Vilnius Pedagogical Institute (now a university), where his older brother Leonardas1 had already studied, and chose the specialty of Lithuanian language and literature. 1 Leonardas Drotvinas (1924–1983), also a linguist, taught at Vilnius University and Vilnius Pedagogical Institute, published articles on Lithuanian language syntax (especially on ancient scripts) and other issues. B. TRIŠKAITĖ. Professor Vincentas Drotvinas – 80 371 After graduating in 1953, Vincentas Drotvinas enrolled in the postgraduate programme of Lithuanian language at Vilnius University. In 1967, he wrote and defended a dissertation on the enriched nouns in Lithuanian writings of the 16th–18th centuries, for which he was awarded the degree of candidate of philological sciences (now – doctor). The topic of his dissertation was published in scientific articles, in which he examined the elements of compound nouns (duriniai) of ancient Lithuanian writings, including Kristijonas Donelaitis’s Metų, and their ways of joining. While collecting material from ancient Lithuanian texts for his dissertation, he also got acquainted with the first German-Lithuanian dictionaries prepared in Lithuania Minor. This essentially determined his further scientific interests – since then the main field of his scientific activity has become the bilingual Lithuanian lexicography of Lesser Lithuania. He dealt with various problems of preparing both manuscript and printed dictionaries of Old German-Lithuanian and Lithuanian-German languages: the circumstances of their creation, authorship, dating, sources, lexicographical method, the vocabulary and phraseology recorded in them. After Lithuania regained its independence, the scholar searched for sources of Lesser Lithuania dictionaries in libraries of Germany (Berlin, Halle, Münster, Wolfenbüttel) and Poland (Gdansk, Toruń). The results of his research and research were summarized in articles published not only in Lithuanian but also in foreign scientific publications (for example, Europa in der Frühen Neuzeit, Geschichte der Sprachtheorie, Hallesche Forschungen, Kulturgeschichte Ostpreußens in der Frühen Neuzeit, Zeitschrift für Slawistik and others). At international scientific conferences he has read a number of papers on various issues of ancient Lithuanian writings, mainly dictionaries. Vincentas Drotvinas was not limited to lexicographic research, but was also interested in Lithuanian lexicology, terminology and language culture. He wrote a number of articles on Lithuanian loanwords, valuables, international words, the formation of terms (e.g., linguistics, lexicology, warfare, education, mail, money names), as well as on phraseologisms. He prepared the study Lingvists Kazimieras Jaunius (together with Vlad Grinavecki, 1970), published this linguist's work on enriched words (1970), wrote about lexical matters in the manuscript legacy of K. Jaunius. He published a booklet Augustas Šleicheris lituanistas (1979), published valuable archive material about Lithuanian linguists Kazimieras Būga, Jurgis Gylius, Fridrich Kuršaitis, Antanas Salis, Andrius Ugianskis, letters of August Schleicher, etc. An important contribution to the history of Lithuanian lexicography and the history of language in general are the Professor’s conclusions on the dating of the dictionaries of Lesser Lithuania: 372 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 After examining the watermarks on the paper of the manuscripts, he corrected the date of preparation of Clavis GermanicoLithvana (1680 is to be regarded as the year of the dictionary’s terminus post quem) and explained that the so-called Krause dictionary was prepared in the 1730s-1740s, thus refuting the prevailing opinion that its author was Andrejus Krauzė, who lived in Nybudžiai in the 17th century. The Lithuanian philological community is grateful to Prof. A. A. Šleževičius for the publication of important sources for Lithuanian studies – manuscript German–Lithuanian dictionaries, now preserved in the manuscript library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. In 1987 a facsimile, transcription and index of Lithuanian words of the mid-17th century anonymous manuscript Lexicon Lithuanicum was published, and in 1995–1997 a facsimile of the two-volume manuscript Clavis Germanico-Lithvana (volumes 1–4) was published. For both publications V. Drotvinas wrote introductory articles, in which he discussed the circumstances of the creation of these dictionaries, examined the problems of authorship, the structure of the dictionaries and the Lithuanian language lexicon presented in them. The fruit of many years of diligent work has also appeared – the three-volume edition of Jakubas Brodovsky’s Lexicon Germanico-Lithvanicum et Lithvanico-Germanicum: the first and second volumes contain a digital copy and transcription of the manuscript, and the third volume is dedicated to the index of Lithuanian words in the dictionary. Thus, thanks to the Professor, the difficult to read manuscripts written in gothic typeface became more accessible not only to the academic community but also to the general public. It should also be mentioned that, at the initiative of Vincentas Drotvinas, the Faculty of Lithuanian Studies of Vilnius Pedagogical University has begun preparing electronic versions of the manuscript dictionaries: the Lithuanian part of the text of Clavis Germanico-Lithvana (on the basis of which electronic concordances of word forms will be compiled) and the text of the mentioned Krauze dictionary have already been compiled. The professor managed to find a copy of Michael Mörlin’s treatise Principium primarium in lingva Lithvanica (1706, Königsberg, thought to be lost) in the library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gdansk. A facsimile of this find, a documentary transcription with textological commentaries, a translation into Lithuanian and an index of Lithuanian words were published together with two other sources of philological polemics in Lithuania Minor in 1706 (2008). Three years ago Professor celebrated fifty years of pedagogical work in his alma mater – Vilnius Pedagogical University. Over the course of more than five decades, he trained several generations of Lithuanianists. Initially she taught Lithuanian students introduction to linguistics, history of literary (written) language, and in recent decades she has taught lexicology B. TRIŠKAITĖ. Professor Vincentas Drotvinas – 80 373 and lexicography courses. Students are happy to choose topics from the subjects taught by him not only for coursework. Each year Professor supervises bachelor and master thesis, four of his doctoral students defended doctoral theses in lexicography, onomastics and terminology. He also wrote several textbooks: Pagrindinės leksikologijos sąvokos (1986), Lietuvos kalbos leksika ir frazeologija (1987), Leksikologijos užduotys (2002). In 1969, Vincent Drotvin was awarded the title of associate professor, and in 1987, the title of professor. Although the Professor has managed to balance his teaching and scientific interests, he has repeatedly mentioned that he is first of all a teacher and only then a scientist. For almost four decades he worked in administrative work: from 1962 to 1983 he was vice-rector for teaching affairs, from 1983 to 1991 he was head of the Lithuanian Language Department of the Faculty of Lithuanian Studies, and from 1991 to 2002 he was head of the Lithuanian Linguistics Department. While working in the field of scientific research and teaching, V. Drotvinas does not forget about school. He published articles on Lithuanian language teaching in schools, compiled a collection of articles Lithuanian language in school (1-3 volumes, 1983-1989). In addition, he has been an active participant in the educational project carried out by the faculty of Lithuanian studies of VPU and together with colleagues he organizes conferences and seminars for Lithuanianists in various Lithuanian cities. On the occasion of this beautiful anniversary, I would like to wish the honourable Professor unwavering enthusiasm, good health and strength in continuing to master the riddles of the ancient Lithuanian scripts and working in the bars of Lithuanian historical lexicography.