Sveikiname Algirdą Sabaliauską

ACTA LINGUISTICA LITHUANICA LIII (2005) 133-138 In the turbulent and difficult years of 1948, a nineteen-year-old young man, Algirdas Sabaliauskas (b. July 26, 1929), graduated from Rygiškių Jono Gymnasium in Marijampole and came to Vilnius University to study Lithuanian language and literature. Neither of the classmates had a clue what the path of this young man's life would be, especially since he was not different from the other prematurely mature commoners. Everyone well knew how tragically fate could turn, unconsciously iStarus ambiguous phrase or recited j West withdrawn one or another poet i§ Independent Lithuania school textbook iStudyed a poem. About the example of netriko. At that time in the Faculty of History and Philology of Vilnius University,,- the first violin was played“ not by intellectual students Vincas Mykolaitis-- Putinas, Juozas Bal¢ikonis, Jurgis Lebedys, Zigmas Zinkevicius and others, but by students who had come to Russia for greater or lesser commitments to Marxism,,to correct*, and by the university’s party and communist actives. However, even in such a damp environment, funny incidents happened, which greatly brightened the nitrie everyday life. This is best confirmed by Algirdas Sabaliauskas' own story, how he, having a poor knowledge of Russian, took the pedagogy exam with a professor who was absent and did not know Lithuanian. But, paraphrasing the title of one of the books by the writer Petronéle Orintaité, also from Suvalkia, Algirdas Sabaliauskas was lucky to have a favourable fate. In 1953, Algirdas Sabaliauskas started working as an editor at the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature. After a few months of university, the young specialist remained in the Institute and, becoming an aspirant, 134 | PERSONALIA started working in the Department of Language History and Dialectology: first as a junior research associate, then as a senior research associate, and finally as a senior research associate. In 1997-2000 he was the director of the restored Lithuanian Language Institute. While working in the Department of Language and Dialectology as a junior research associate, Algirdas Sabaliauskas published the first large-scale publication, which has not lost its scientific value until today. Siol. This year 1957 in the collection of articles Some issues of Lithuanian language grammar are published in the study prepared on the basis of the diploma thesis,Athematiniai lietuviy kalbos veiksmaZodiiai* (p. 77-114). In the same year Moksly in the works of the academy ir In the test publication ir of the Lithuanian Language Literature Institute Literatiira ir language appeared the first three publications i§ at the time of completing the preparation for the defense of the doctorate (then a candidate of philology) dissertation Balty kalby zemés tkio augaly pavadinimy kilmé (,,Del kanapés pavadinimo* ir,,Dél grikio pavadinimo“, —Lithuanian SSR MA works. Serie A, 1957, vol. 2(3), p. 199-210; 211-218; ,,Déel The origin of the name — Zirnis“, ir Literatūra 1957, kalba, vol. 2, pp. 346-355). Algirdas Sabaliauskas defended his dissertation in 1958. Already in these first publications of the young scientist revealed another "God-given gift" (which not everyone is equally rewarded) - the ability to explain complex and very complicated aspects of the history of the Misu language Zodziy in a simple language understandable to everyone. Having defended his ir dissertation almost entirely in separate ja articles published in linguistic periodicals, Algirdas Sabaliauskas ir remained devoted to the historical research of the Lithuanian language lexicon. The results of these studies were ir published only in linguistic articles, but ne soon appeared a comprehensive study of the historical lexicology of ir the Lithuanian language:,,Lithuanian language lexical development* (LKK, 1966, t. 8, p. 5-141); ,,Balty kalby naminiy gyvulių pavadinimai* (LKK, 1968, t. 10, p. 101-190) ir ,,The history of livestock farming terminology in Belarusian* (LKK, 1970, t. 12, p. 7-81). These studies under a common name The study of the lexicon of the Belarusian language was defended as a habilitation thesis in 1975. These studies also did not end Algirdo The study of the Lithuanian language. Painiais ir vingiuotais lietuviy language Algirdas Sabaliauskasjy ,,played“ on the paths and paths of the origin and semantic development of ZodZiy and so on. The jubilee summarized all the Lithuanian language lexical data collected during his »journey« in the monograph Liewuviy kalbos leksika, published in 1990. In this book, which significantly supplemented the etymological and historical researches of the Lithuanian language lexicon, the author comprehensively revealed the By distinguishing the main layers of the vocabulary, the author reviewed the words borrowed from other languages and the creation of new words in recent times. $i book as previousneir ss In this topic Algirdo Sabaliauskas studies, became the favorite book of every lexicologist and etymologist. Without Algirdas Sabaliauskas it is impossible to imagine Lithuanian linguistics and the history of Lithuanian language research. It can be said without hesitation that the anniversary is He is the pioneer of this field of research, no — one else has so systematically and meticulously recorded the ir history of Lithuanian language research and the facts of Lithuanian language researcher's life. It goes without saying that, having such a bigZiul), in current terms 8nekant, PERSONALIA | 135 In this field of data bank, the jubilee could not keep it for himself. Todel, systematizing and summarising the facts of Lithuanian linguistics and the history of Lithuanian language research, I will present them to Lithuanian language researchers and the public. There are two different versions of the story: The story of the discovery. 1979) and History of Lithuanian Language Research: 1940-1980 (1982). They chronologically discuss the process of studying Lithuanian language not only in Lithuania, but also in other countries. For these books Algirdas Sabaliauskas was awarded the Lithuanian State Prize in 1984. It is true, that the more attentive reader of these days, after reading these words, may admit that many things in the aforementioned books are discussed fragmentarily, and some are overly detailed. And, of course, in part i8 he will be right. However, this is not the fault of Algirdas Sabaliauskas, 0 the Soviet standards of the time. They forced the author to give up a lot. At that time, the scope of scientific monographs was strictly regulated. To this day Algirdas Sabaliauskas, in order to present as many facts of the history of Lithuanian language research as possible, had to ignore the established standards. It can be said in advance that in the third part of the history of Lithuanian language research, which is now being prepared for the jubilee, and which will review Lithuanian language research carried out after 1980, there will certainly be no such,,shortcomings*. No other Lithuanian linguist can match Algirdas Sabaliauskas and outperform him in popularizing linguistics among young people and society as a whole. In order to make as many people of different ages as possible love their mother tongue and be interested in its secrets, and being able, as already said, to tell about the important subjects of linguistics in a simple and visual way, Algirdas Sabaliauskas, since 1962, as a Lithuanian Christian Andersen, has been following intriguing stories for readers of different ages, not about princesses and fairies, but about the origin of the Lithuanian language and its travels. Therefore, it is not surprising that his books for the general public were so well received and appreciated in Lithuania and in many foreign countries, and that they were repeatedly reprinted: Zodiai keliauja (1962, 71993), Zodziai pasakoja (1965), Zodziai atgyja (1967, 71980, 2000) and Centas kalbos mintiy (1970, 22001). Perhaps the most,,i8auk8tinta“ of all this series of publications became the third —Wodziai atgyja, which the famous American Baltist William R. Schmalstiegas together with Ruth Armentraut translated into English and some time later published in Chicago (Noted Scholars of Lithuanian Language, Chicago, 1973). Ikuo Murata, a Japanese linguist and Lithuanian literature popularizer and translator, has published some chapters of this book in Japanese. The popularized books of Algirdas Sabaliauskas on the theme of the history of the study of the Lithuanian language also belong to the field of popularization of science: Kaip tyrinéta lietuviy kalba (1984), Balty kalby tyrinejimai (1986), Mes baltai (1986, 72002; in English We, the Balts, Vilnius, 1993) and the book written together with Prof. Jon Palionis Ryty slavy kalbininkai lituanistikos baruose (1990). With these books are closely related articles by Algirdas Sabaliauskas about Lithuanian language researchers or institutions and organizations carrying out research relevant to Lithuanian language and important publications for Lithuanian and Baltic studies in Lithuanian and other scientific periodicals and encyclopedic publications. If we collected all these articles in one place, we would also have a solid book. 136 | PERSONALIA Algirdas Sabaliauskas is not only a linguist sitting at his writing desk, but also a funny, simple, sensitive man who loves to communicate with young people. He is a frequent guest in his native Marijampolė and in other schools. The jubilee also devoted to the educational youth the book IS kur jie?, published in 1994, which we could also call a peculiar popular Dictionary of the etymology of the Lithuanian language. Since Algirdas Sabaliauskas always speaks very warmly and respectfully about his former teachers and classmates, he dedicated this book to his,,teachers and those who graduated or should have graduated from Rygiskiy Jono Gymnasium in Marijampole in 1948” (p. 4). The author of the book,,Pretarmeéje“, once again recalling the tragic post-war years, says that while writing this book,,he constantly remembered his school days, classmates. Sometimes he even imagined (may he be forgiven for his naivety!), that such a book would be read with pleasure not only by him, but also by his friends, when they were taught by Jonas Kabelka and Jonas Kvederaitis at the Rygiskiy Jono gymnasium in Marijampole. The book is therefore dedicated to the memory of the teachers and classmates, especially those who left the class before and never returned to it again” (p. 5-6). These words of Algirdas Sabaliauskas, it seems, should be listened to carefully by today's educators and leaders, and they should think about how in such difficult conditions the teachers of that time were able to instill in their pupils not only friendship and a sense of duty, but also love for their native country, its culture, which, unfortunately, cannot be boast of the reformist than the present-day Lithuanian school. To the already mentioned scientific activities of Algirdas Sabaliauskas should be added the jubilee’s efforts in preparing Lithuanian cadres. Jubiliatas was the chairman of the Lithuanian State Examination Commission of Vilnius Pedagogical University for about three decades, he gave lectures there. Algirdas Sabaliauskas tells how uncomfortable he felt when he met in the auditorium or at the examination table many of his teachers who had already reached a distinguished age and who, due to circumstances, had not been able to obtain a higher education diploma earlier. In 1997, Vilnius Pedagogical University awarded Algirdas Sabaliauskas the title of professor. Congratulating the correspondent member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Algirda Sabaliauska on her beautiful 75th anniversary, we cannot fail to add that without the jubilee’s diverse activities it is simply impossible to imagine the current language science community, especially since Algirdas Sabaliauskas was and is a member of the editorial boards and scientific councils of many linguistic publications. Yes The various activities of the jubilee were recognized with two Orders of the Great Duke Gediminas of Lithuania (1997, 2002). And we, the employees of the Department of Language History and Dialectology of the Lithuanian Language Institute, wishing our senior colleague good health and long life, say: Greatly esteemed Professor, He is very much needed by us. We are always waiting for His heartfelt advice and comforting breath in difficult moments, and together with all readers interested in Lithuanian language, His Words, trying to understand much more about »the everyday <...> spoken Words* than about the most distant planets, the depths of the Earth, computer operations or even horoscopes of the prophecies« — the new history of the origin of the Lithuanian language Words. Juozas Karaciejus