J. Balčikonio mokslinė, literatūrinė ir pedagoginė veikla

LIETUVIŲ KALBOS SANDAROS TYRINĖJIMAI LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, XXVI (1987) I KAZYS ULVYDAS J. BALČIKONIS’S SCHOLARLY, LITERARY, AND PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITIES On March 12 (25), 1985, 100 years had passed since the birth of J. Balčikonis. This anniversary was commemorated throughout the republic. Volume XXVI of “Questions of Lithuanian Linguistics” was also dedicated to it; on the occasion of its publication, it is worthwhile once again briefly to remind the public of the scholarly, literary, and pedagogical activities of this distinguished linguist, through which he made a significant contribution to Lithuanian studies. Born into a family of smallholders, J. Balčikonis spent his childhood in his native village of Ėriškiai (near Ramygala). After graduating from Panevėžys Real School, he decided to devote himself to the study of philology. But to do so, he first had to complete a course in classical languages, without which it was impossible to study Indo-European linguistics. Having studied privately and passed the secondary-school Latin examination, in 1906 he enrolled as a non-degree student in the Slavic Studies Department of the Faculty of History and Philology at Peterburg University. A year later, after also passing the Ancient Greek examination, he was admitted as a regular student. At that time, Peterburg University, like the Russian Academy of Sciences, was renowned for both Slavic studies and comparative Indo-European linguistics. The Russian Academy of Sciences’ academicians F. Fortunatov, A. Shakhmatov, J. Baudouin de Courtenay, S. Bulich, A. Sobolevsky, and other eminent linguists worked there. These world-renowned scholars (especially F. Fortunatov) also knew Lithuanian and studied and compared it with other Indo-European languages (particularly Baltic and Slavic). At that time, the Faculty of History and Philology at Peterburg University was also attended by the eminent Lithuanian linguist K. Būga, who had enrolled in the Slavic Studies Department a year before J. Balčikonis. The vibrant intellectual atmosphere at Peterburg University, and the progressive Russian scholars mentioned above and others, had a major influence on the formation of J. Balčikonis’s scholarly and public views. He graduated from the university in 1911 and until 1915 worked in Lithuania, mainly as a teacher (teaching Latin and Lithuanian, now in a secondary school, now in teacher-training courses). In 1915, because of the war, he evacuated to Voronezh, where until 1918 he taught Lithuanian and Latin at boys’ and girls’ refugee gymnasiums and at a teachers’ institute. At the same time, the eminent creator of the Lithuanian literary language J. Jablonskis, the mathematician Z. Žemaitis, and other Lithuanian intellectuals also worked as teachers in Voronezh; J. Balčikonis was bound to them by sincere friendship. Throughout his life, he remembered our eminent linguist J. Jablonskis with particular affection and respect, regarding him as his teacher. In general, it should be recalled that the few Lithuanian linguists of that time were linked by the most sincere friendship. For example, J. Balčikonis would also fondly recall our eminent linguist K. Būga, his somewhat older colleague. 4 This friendship among linguists strengthened them in their struggle for the rights and culture of the Lithuanian language under tsarist oppression. Returning to Lithuania in 1918, J. Balčikonis settled in Panevėžys, where for several years he taught and served as a school principal (first at a gymnasium, and later at a teachers’ seminary as well). In 1924 he was elected associate professor in the Faculty of Humanities at Kaunas University and began teaching students a general course in the Lithuanian language. After K. Būga’s death (1924), the major “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language” project he had begun came to a complete halt. In the six years since K. Būga’s death, a thick layer of dust had already settled on the card index and manuscripts he left behind. It is impossible to know how much longer the work he had begun would have remained untouched if J. Balčikonis had not made efforts to continue it—or, indeed, if there had not been a person like J. Balčikonis at that time. Repeatedly and energetically appealing to the public and the bourgeois government of the time, he argued that the Lithuanian nation urgently needed a dictionary and that the work begun by K. Būga had to be continued. The task required a well-prepared and dedicated person. And so, at the end of 1930, J. Balčikonis was entrusted with reorganizing the publication of the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language.” A meticulous study of K. Būga’s lexicographical legacy began. It immediately became clear that the dictionary card index left by K. Būga, although quite large (weighing about 17 pūd, with 617,553 slips), was still far from sufficient for a major dictionary of the Lithuanian language. It was necessary to organize anew the collection of words both from spoken folk language and folklore, and from literature of various periods and genres. J. Balčikonis threw himself into this organizational work with great zeal. At the same time, he studied K. Būga’s legacy and lexicographical literature more generally, especially dictionaries1. Studying these dictionaries and lexicographical literature in general helped J. Balčikonis shape the type of the forthcoming dictionary, since it became clear that, under the conditions of the time, it would not be possible to retain the type of dictionary K. Būga had begun publishing and that it would have to be changed. The change in the dictionary’s type was probably due chiefly to the fact that the person continuing the work was a linguist with different inclinations and a different background from its initiator, K. Būga. The main field of K. Būga’s research was historical-comparative Baltic and Indo-European linguistics, whereas J. Balčikonis was first and foremost a practical Lithuanian-language scholar, working mainly in language standardization. Thus, the dictionary type chosen by J. Balčikonis more closely resembles the aforementioned Polish, Russian, or even, in part, Latvian dictionaries than the dictionary begun by K. Būga. Having defined the type of the forthcoming dictionary and enlarged the card index, J. Balčikonis began writing the text of the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language,” assisted initially by N. Grigas, the Dictionary editorial office’s full-time secretary, and later by unpaid collaborators, mainly students of Lithuanian studies. Collaborators were also involved in writing the text. This dictionary, which diverged considerably from K. Būga’s approach and followed the model of no other Lithuanian or foreign-language dictionary, proved to be a wholly distinctive, original, truly unique work, without precedent in the entire history of Lithuanian studies. The following dictionaries should be noted: Słownik języka polskiego // Compiled under the editorship of Jan Karłowicz, Adam Kryński, and Władysław Niedźwiedzki. — Warszawa, 1900—1927, vol. 1—8; Słownik gwar polskich/Compiled by Jan Karłowicz. — Kraków, 1900—1911, vol. 1—6; Mühlenbachs K. Latviešu valodas vārdnīca/Edited, supplemented, and continued by J. Endzelīns. — Rīga, 1923—1932, vol. 1—4; Даль В. И. Толковый словарь живого великорусского языка / 3rd ed., edited by Prof. И. А. Бодуэн де Куртене. — С.-Петербург—Москва, 1904—1909, vol. 1—4. 5 J. Balčikonis’s greatest contribution here is that he prevented K. Būga’s lexicographical legacy from falling into oblivion; drawing on that legacy, he created a new, original, and unique type of dictionary, wrote a substantial portion of the text for the first volumes of the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language,” edited all three first volumes and part of the fourth (up to the word iš) as editor-in-chief in accordance with the original instructions, and supported the dictionary throughout his life by organizing volunteers to collect words and by collecting words himself from spoken language and written sources. J. Balčikonis devoted more than 20 years to editing the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language” and training lexicographers. Before the first volume of this dictionary was published, the card index itself had grown by a full million slips. It came to include especially many words and sentences from the people’s spoken language, often from places from which not a single word or sentence had previously made its way into linguistic works. Until his retirement in 1959, J. Balčikonis was the most dedicated organizer of volunteer word-collection efforts at Vilnius University. Encouraged and instructed by him, Lithuanian studies students collected a substantial batch of words for the dictionary each year from various corners of Lithuania. The tradition of word collection that J. Balčikonis established at the University remains alive today: for many years now, University Lithuanian studies lecturers A. Pupkis, B. Stundžia, O. Kuosienė, R. Venckutė, economist V. Mačiekus, and others have, while supervising students’ work placements or simply taking part in expeditions and trips, collected words and sentences from the living folk language together with students (or on their own). J. Balčikonis’s contributions to Lithuanian lexicography stand out even more clearly when one recalls that, while the first dictionary volumes were being written, there were, one might say, virtually no qualified lexicographers in Lithuania. Almost single-handedly, he organized the volunteer word-collection effort, shaped the dictionary’s format, and drafted at least a provisional editing guide. The first steps were especially difficult because of the shortage of qualified collaborators; the dictionary project demanded great self-sacrifice from its editor-in-chief. Over the course of several years, a small but highly cohesive and creative group of young lexicographers was trained (in addition to N. Grigas, the Dictionary editorial office’s secretary, special mention should be made of such collaborators as J. Mikeliūnas, Z. Uoselis, A. Lyberis, K. Vosylius, E. Mikalauskaitė, and J. Senkus. It is regrettable that this group of collaborators was greatly depleted by the harsh conditions of the war and the German fascist occupation.) Another very important area of scholarly activity that J. Balčikonis favored was onomastics, especially toponymy. In this field he published an interesting study on the names of Lithuanian populated places derived from river names, and wrote articles on the origins and original authentic forms of individual place names. Explaining and verifying place names and restoring their literary forms require great care and dedication. J. Balčikonis carried out this work, one might say, throughout his life. He often went himself, sometimes more than once, to a particular populated place and checked the pronunciation of the place name in question directly with local people, restoring its literary form. Using direct observation or survey methods, he carefully verified most of the names of populated places in the Lithuanian SSR and established their literary forms. It is also necessary to mention that, even before the war, largely through J. Balčikonis’s efforts and concern, a list was compiled of the names of all populated places in Lithuania 6 a dictionary, arranged according to the names of the administrative-territorial units of that time. J. Balčikonis himself was chiefly responsible for checking, standardizing, and marking the stress of the place-name forms in that dictionary. He also made a significant contribution to other onomastic works of the prewar period: the standardization of names of uninhabited places, especially river names. J. Balčikonis did notable work editing texts of great importance both to the history of the Lithuanian language and to Lithuanian language culture. First to be mentioned here is M. Petkevičius’s 1598 catechism (“Polski z Litewskim Katechism… Malchera Pietkiewicza”, V., 1598), which J. Balčikonis published in facsimile in Kaunas in 1939. He also edited the translation from Latin of D. Klein’s first Lithuanian grammar (“Grammatica Litvanica… à M. Daniele Klein”, 1653). This translation, together with the Lithuanian translation of D. Klein’s abridged German-language Lithuanian grammar (M. Danielis Kleinii “Compendium Litvanico-Germanicum…”, Königsberg, 1654) and complete facsimile reproductions of the original texts, was published as a separate book (“The First Lithuanian Grammar”, V., 1957). J. Balčikonis’s editing considerably improved the Lithuanian translation of D. Klein’s grammar. Being an excellent stylist himself, J. Balčikonis greatly valued writers from whom one could learn clear, lively, vernacular language and good style. One such writer is undoubtedly M. Valančius. Wanting to make M. Valančius’s writings accessible to a broader readership, J. Balčikonis collected and published them (“Valančius’s Writings”, K., 1931), thereby rendering a great service to schools and to Lithuanian language culture. J. Jablonskis’s writings are of great importance both to the history of the Lithuanian literary language and to Lithuanian language culture. Until 1932, they had been scattered across a wide variety of newspapers, journals, and other publications, while some had appeared as separate books or booklets. Most of them were entirely inaccessible to readers. Having collected and edited all the most important writings of J. Jablonskis, which readers could generally no longer access or could access only with difficulty, J. Balčikonis published them in five volumes2. The publication of this work opened up a vast treasury of the Lithuanian literary language to the Lithuanian public. The picture of J. Balčikonis’s literary work would be very incomplete without mentioning his outstanding translations. Who, in fact, has not read and delighted in his Lithuanian translations of tales by Andersen, Hauff, the Brothers Grimm, and Perrault, and works by Jules Verne and Jonathan Swift? Some of these translations have appeared in more than one edition. Through these translations, the public became acquainted with the finest examples of fairy tales, which had entered the treasury of world literature. J. Balčikonis’s translations of fairy tales are truly exceptional. They clearly reveal not only the translator’s perfect command of Lithuanian but also his extensive literary education and ability. The language of these translations stands out not only for its correctness but also for its extraordinary clarity, liveliness, vividness, and folk character. The translations of fairy tales by J. Balčikonis and his students (he translated some of the tales with his students) are examples of the perfect Lithuanian literary language and of the language of perfect Lithuanian works of fiction, from which entire generations have learned language culture in practice. Thus, through his excellent translations of fairy tales, J. Balčikonis made an effective contribution to 2 Jablonskio raštai / Red. J. Balčikonis. – K., 1932–1936, t. 1–5. 7 the raising of the culture of the entire Lithuanian literary language, and the normalization of the literary language. Through these translations he brought much liveliness, naturalness, and simplicity to the Lithuanian literary language, something that can quite readily be compared to the invigorating air of the Lithuanian countryside. The liveliness, vividness, simplicity, and folksiness of the language in those translations of fairy tales were undoubtedly also shaped by the influence of the translator’s native dialect. Having a good command of his native Ėriškiai dialect and maintaining a connection with it throughout his life, J. Balčikonis was able to draw very creatively on the riches of its vocabulary, phraseology, and grammar—whether translating fairy tales, correcting various linguistic errors, or improving and refining the Lithuanian literary language in general. That the people’s spoken language is indeed a living and inexhaustible source for enriching and developing the literary language is brilliantly illustrated by J. Balčikonis’s translations of fairy tales and by all his work on language culture and normalization. Two of J. Balčikonis’s final major works must also be mentioned here: his translation into Lithuanian of J. Otrębski’s three-volume work „Gramatyka języka litewskiego“ (Warszawa, 1956—1958, t. 1—3) and „Druskininkų dainos“. Of the first work, only the manuscript remains. In fact, it is an exceptional translation. The language of the translation is particularly splendid. One might say that it is simply a model of Lithuanian scholarly language. Moreover, the translator not only corrected, clarified, and supplemented a great deal, but also managed to submit the translation to Prof. J. Otrębski, who lived in Poland, for authorization. Thus, in quality, the translation surpasses the original itself. Published by some means of reproduction, this translation would be of great use to all Lithuanian philologists (and others who know Lithuanian) as a valuable source for Lithuanian studies. The second work mentioned here, published after J. Balčikonis’s death (he died in 1969), is „Druskininkų dainos“ (V., 1972), songs he recorded from J. Jurkonienė, a singer from the village of Mizarai. This is an excellent scholarly collection of Lithuanian folk songs, of great importance both to the study of folklore and to linguistics. This folk collection is like the swan song of our distinguished linguist, made all the more resonant by the melodies of the songs, recorded by B. Ugincius and included in the collection, as well as by L. Sauka’s introductory article, P. Jokimaitienė’s index, and other contributions. J. Balčikonis had to study and work for a time when the Lithuanian literary language was not yet established, when its norms still fluctuated considerably, and when the teaching of that language had, so to speak, only just begun to take its first, unsteady steps. It is therefore entirely understandable that he held the spoken language of the people in the highest regard; it was truly of great help when literary-language norms had to be created in the absence of a sufficient body of good written works. In such cases, the people’s spoken language is often the only reliable criterion for testing literary-language norms. Indeed, this was precisely the criterion followed by all the great creators of Lithuanian literary language—writers M. Daukša, K. Sirvydas, K. Donelaitis, S. Daukantas, M. Valančius, Žemaitė, Vaižgantas, and many others, as well as linguists D. Kleinas, K. Jaunius, J. Jablonskis, K. Būga, the physician P. Avižonis, the forester P. Matulionis, and others. Observing this criterion played a major role in establishing the norms of the Lithuanian literary language and in the development of the literary language as a whole. It is self-evident that at present, when the norms of the Lithuanian literary language have become established and both belles lettres and scholarly literature have grown enormously, relying solely on 8 the people’s spoken language as a criterion for norms is no longer possible. We must take account of the facts of the developed literary language and consider the tendencies of its development. Nevertheless, even today the people’s spoken language has not lost its immense importance as an irreplaceable source for enriching the literary language, from which vocabulary, phraseology, and syntactic facts needed for its development can still be drawn by the handful. J. Balčikonis’s multifaceted pedagogical work could be discussed in greater detail only in a dedicated study, or at least a separate article. Here, one can only present him as a sincere and devoted mentor to young scholars. Over nearly 50 years of teaching, J. Balčikonis trained a large body of Lithuanian-language teachers. His former students can be found in every corner of Lithuania, in many different types of schools. J. Balčikonis’s pedagogical work became particularly diverse and significant after Lithuanian-language postgraduate programs were established at Vilnius State University and at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature of the Lithuanian TSR Academy of Sciences. He taught as a professor at the University until 1959 (he received the title of professor shortly after the Great Patriotic War), while also serving as director of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language until 1952 (in 1946 he was elected an academician of the Lithuanian TSR Academy of Sciences); J. Balčikonis began supervising postgraduate students in Lithuanian studies. He continued this work throughout his life. A considerable number of his former postgraduate students have defended not only candidate’s but also doctoral dissertations, and work as professors or associate professors at the republic’s institutions of higher education, as well as research associates at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature. While teaching the general course in contemporary Lithuanian literary language at the University and supervising postgraduate students, J. Balčikonis used a whole range of teaching methods: theoretical lectures, written assignments and their correction, translations from other languages, recording words and sentences from the native dialect, discussions of theoretical and practical language questions, and trips to places where speakers of the dialect lived. All this constituted a complete system for teaching the native language, which can confidently be called the school of Lithuanian-language teaching created by J. Balčikonis. It is very similar to the school of Lithuanian-language teaching established by the distinguished developer of Lithuanian literary language, J. Jablonskis. It is understandable that the teaching school created by J. Jablonskis greatly influenced his most devoted student, J. Balčikonis, who not only adopted it but also enriched it with variety. Just as J. Jablonskis’s very finest and most devoted students speak with the deepest respect of his school of Lithuanian-language teaching, which they had the opportunity to complete, so too J. Balčikonis’s students rejoice and take pride in having completed his school of Lithuanian-language teaching. Although J. Balčikonis was demanding and strict with himself and his students, he was always also unassuming, approachable, helpful, and sincere. He knew how to inspire his students with a love of their native language and was distinguished by his devotion to its study. Everyone who came into closer contact with him loved and respected him. He never refused anyone his valuable advice on questions of linguistic theory and practice. He regarded a good command of one’s native language and devotion to its study as a sacred duty—indeed, a necessity—for every scholar of Lithuanian. Loving his native language, he also strove to instill in every studen- 9 to inspire love and respect for it, already advising first-year students to give up all pastimes and pleasures (excursions, outings, dances, entertainments) throughout the time needed to master accentology, phonetics, grammar, and stylistics thoroughly. The Communist Party and the Soviet government highly valued J. Balčikonis’s scholarly and pedagogical work and his contributions to Lithuanian linguistics and national culture. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and granted the title of Honoured Scientist of the Lithuanian SSR. The 1st Panevėžys Secondary School was named after him; a monument was erected over his grave in Ėriškiai, a memorial plaque was affixed to the house where he lived, and Selected Works3 were published. J. Balčikonis’s works on Lithuanian are a significant contribution to Lithuanian linguistics. Through all his work, he was closely bound to Lithuania and its people. Even now, more than a century after his birth and seventeen years after his death, his influence remains exceptionally strong on Lithuanian lexicography, the history of the Lithuanian language, onomastics, folklore, and the entire culture of the Lithuanian language. We understand this culture not only as the existence of grammars, dictionaries, good Lithuanian-language textbooks, periodicals devoted to language culture, and many practical language handbooks and articles; not only as the fine speech of radio and television announcers and theatre actors, but also as a rich, expressive written and spoken language, widely established in public life, science, literature, and every Lithuanian family. Language culture can flourish where people’s love for their mother tongue flourishes. Throughout his life, J. Balčikonis instilled in us love for our language, that most precious inheritance from our fathers, the greatest value of our national culture. The Lithuanian people—and especially their future, the young Soviet generation, increasingly embraced by universal education—will erect for J. Balčikonis a truly imperishable monument, stronger than any granite, by loving, honouring, cherishing, and cultivating the language inherited with their mothers’ milk and blood. THE SCHOLARLY, LITERARY AND PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF J. BALČIKONIS Abstract The article, published to mark the centenary of the birth of the prominent Lithuanian linguist J. Balčikonis, surveys his scholarly, literary, and pedagogical activities. In 1906, J. Balčikonis entered the Slavic Studies department of the Faculty of History and Philology at St. Petersburg University. At that time, St. Petersburg University, like the Russian Academy of Sciences, was renowned for research in Slavic studies and comparative-historical Indo-European linguistics. Academicians F. F. Fortunatov, A. A. Shakhmatov, I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, A. I. Sobolevsky, and others worked there. Some of them (for example, F. F. Fortunatov) knew Lithuanian well and studied it. The intellectual atmosphere at St. Petersburg University and its progressive Russian scholars exerted a beneficial influence on the development of J. Balčikonis’s scholarly and social views. After graduating from the university in 1911, J. Balčikonis began teaching in secondary schools, and in 1924 he was elected associate professor in the Faculty of Humanities at Kaunas University. Immediately after the Great Patriotic War, he was awarded the ti- 3 Balčikonis J. Selected Works / Comp. A. Pupkis. — V., 1978—1982, vol. 1—2. 10 …professorship, and he continued his teaching work at Vilnius State University, where he worked until his retirement in 1959. The greatest and most important contribution of J. Balčikonis should be considered his creative and fruitful continuation of the lexicographical work begun by K. Būga. The result of this work was a substantial expansion and enrichment of the dictionary card file left after K. Būga’s death and the creation of the first three volumes of the large academic “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language.” The three volumes of the Dictionary prepared by J. Balčikonis are not simply a continuation of K. Būga’s dictionary, the second edition of which appeared in 1925, but an entirely new, original, and unique work. For the first time in the history of Lithuanian linguistics, a solid foundation was laid for a multi-volume thesaurus of the Lithuanian language. This Dictionary covers vocabulary gathered from all written monuments beginning in the sixteenth century, from all dialects, and from available folklore sources. Beginning with volume IV (after the word iš), work on the Dictionary has been successfully continued by staff of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language and Literature. In 1952, an All-Union lexicographical conference was held in Vilnius, where the Dictionary’s guidelines were expanded and clarified. The third volume, like those that followed, was prepared according to the new guidelines, which were also used in reissuing the first two volumes. In 1986, the Dictionary’s 14th volume is published. The complete edition is planned to comprise 20 volumes. Another important area of J. Balčikonis’s work was language cultivation. He wrote a number of scholarly, well-founded articles devoted to current issues in the vocabulary, grammar, and stylistics of the Lithuanian literary language. Alongside lexicography and language cultivation, J. Balčikonis was interested in onomastics throughout his life. He collected and standardized many toponyms and hydronyms. Even before the Second World War, he had prepared a gazetteer of the names of all settlements in Lithuania. All the toponyms in it are marked for accentuation and standardized. J. Balčikonis made a substantial contribution to Lithuanian studies through the scholarly preparation and publication of monuments of the Lithuanian language and literature. He prepared and published the “Writings of J. Jablonskis” in five volumes (“J. Jablonskio raštai” … I—V т., Каунас, 1932—1936), which are of foremost importance for Lithuanian language culture. J. Balčikonis also prepared and published other important monuments of Lithuanian writing: “Writings of Valančius” (“Valančiaus raštai” … Каунас, 1931); M. Petkevičius’s “Catechism” (“Polski z Litewskim Katechizm” … 1598, facsimile reprint, Каунас, 1939). Under his editorship, a translation from Latin into Lithuanian of the first grammar of the Lithuanian language was published: “Grammatica Lituanica” … a Daniele Klein… 1653). This translation, together with a facsimile of the original text and a facsimile of the German original of D. Klein’s abridged grammar (“Compendium…“ 1954), was published as a separate book (“Pirmoji lietuvių kalbos gramatika”… Vilnius, 1957). J. Balčikonis made a major contribution to Lithuanian language culture through his unsurpassed translations of fairy tales by Andersen, Hauff, the Brothers Grimm, and Perrault, as well as works by Jules Verne and Jonathan Swift. These translations testify not only to the translator’s excellence as a stylist and his profound knowledge of the Lithuanian language, but also to his great literary talent. Generations have learned exemplary literary language from these translations. Two of J. Balčikonis’s final works should also be mentioned here: his translation into Lithuanian of the major work by the renowned Polish linguist J. Otrębski, “Gramatyka języka litewskiego” (vols. I—III, Warszawa, 1956—1958), and the folklore publication of songs collected by J. Balčikonis in the vicinity of Druskininkai (“Druskininkų dainos”. Užrašė Balčikonis J. Vilnius: Vaga, 1972). J. Balčikonis not only translated the aforementioned grammar into Lithuanian, but also supplemented, corrected, and improved the original text. The translation is authorized, but remains in manuscript to this day. 11 The collection of the aforementioned songs is an exemplary folkloric publication. The songs are accompanied by the musical notation of their melodies, transcribed by the publication’s co-author, B. Uginčius. J. Balčikonis’s studies, and to some extent his independent work, took place at a time when the norms of the Lithuanian literary language had not yet been firmly established. It is therefore understandable that he saw the standard for these norms in the living vernacular speech of the people, which he regarded as the foundation of the literary language. In his teaching, J. Balčikonis employed a whole range of methods (theoretical lectures, written assignments, revising them in class with students, translations from foreign languages, recording words and sentences from the native dialect, discussions of theoretical and practical questions concerning the Lithuanian language, trips to the home regions of speakers of particular dialects, and so on). All this constitutes a school for teaching the mother tongue. J. Balčikonis trained a number of Lithuanian-language teachers. Some of his students now work at the republic’s higher education institutions as associate professors and professors and hold doctoral degrees. J. Balčikonis’s works made a significant contribution to Lithuanian linguistics, especially Lithuanian lexicography, onomastics, and speech culture.