Report from the Second Joint Conference on Baltic and Scandinavian Studies held at Yale University, 13–15 March 2014
In March 2014 the Conference on Baltic and Scandinavian Studies was held at Yale University. The conference was a joint effort between the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) and the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies (SASS) and it attracted over 500 participants from all over the world. The key-note lecture was held by the Forst Family Professor of History at Yale University, Anders Winroth: “The Curious Career of the Viking Berserk”. The conference was impeccably organized and the many panel sessions were interspersed with other activities, such as thematic lunches, concerts, campus tours and film screenings. A welcome reception was held at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. This beautifully designed library hosts a large collection of antique books, many of which are displayed in the glass-sealed space at the centre of the building, and it provided a wonderful setting for the welcome reception. The panel sessions covered many aspects of Baltic and Scandinavian Studies, including history, economics, political studies, media, culture and literature as well as linguistics. In this report, we will concentrate on the presentations concerning Baltic Linguistics.
In the first panel session Language, Culture, and Politics, Giedrius Subačius from the University of Illinois at Chicago addressed concept of “the List of the Great mistakes” in Lithuanian. This 53 pages long list was issued by the State Language Commission in Lithuania in 1997, and it was a merged version of a number of smaller lists passed in 1992–1997. In his talk, Subačius presented and analysed the protocols of the State Language Commission and brought to light issues surrounding the compilation of this list. In particular the criteria chosen to prepare the list have previously been criticized by Loreta Vaicekauskienė as lacking systematic cohesion. Subačius also discussed the current language policy in Lithuania where the State Language Inspection applies administrative means, such as fines or admonitions, to those institutions and publishers that publically use linguistic forms and words included in this list. Another talk related to the language politics involving Lithuanian was presented by Meilutė Ramonienė from Vilnius University, who discussed the “Patterns of Language use and Ethnic Identity in the Lithuanian Diaspora.”
Additional panels included topics on Language Teaching where, for example, Jogilė Teresa Ramonaitė from the Institute of the Lithuanian Language talked about “Acquisition of Lithuanian in a Natural Context” and Iveta Grīnberga from the University of Washington presented a case study of Latvian heritage and non-heritage language students: “Is Early Exposure to Heritage Language Beneficial? A Case Study of Latvian Heritage and Non-Heritage Language Students”. In addition, “New Possibilities to Improve Teaching and Learning the Lithuanian Language Abroad” were addressed by Aušra Valančiauskienė (University of Washington). In the section devoted to Language, Teaching, and Education Initiatives in Northern Europe, Kerttu Kibbermann from the University of Latvia discussed the following topic: “Foreign Languages in Higher Education in Latvia: Regulations and Practices”.
During the panel session Foreign Influence on Language and Literature Aurelija Mickūnaitė-Griškevičienė from Vilnius University discussed translation strategies for a bilingual dictionary from a lexicographic point of view. She introduced the interesting phenomenon of zero equivalence in bilingual dictionaries and addressed a number of untranslatable concepts in the Norwegian – Lithuanian dictionary, which is currently being compiled by lexicographers from the universities of Vilnius and Oslo. In order to analyse the types of Norwegian headwords with no equivalents in Lithuanian language, quantitative data was presented in an attempt to reveal the different decisions that were made in the cases of zero equivalence. The various editorial decisions were analyzed and it was subsequently discussed how this kind of lexicographical experience can be valuable in the practice of translation. A number of presentations at this conference were devoted to Translation Methodology, e.g. “Rainis’ The Golden Horse – Zelta zirgs: Translation of Classic Latvian Literature” by Vilis Inde (independent), “Latvian Literature Translations through the Lens of Comparative Literary Studies: Periods and Phenomena”, Maija Burima (Daugavpils University) and “The Transformation of Lithuanian Young Adult Literature since 1990: The Effect of Translated Literature”, Brigita Dimavičienė (Vytautas Magnus University).
At the panel session Topics in Comparative Linguistics there were a number of presentations concerning the history of the Baltic languages. Yoko Yamazaki (Stockholm University) discussed the possibility of a phenomenon “Monosyllabic Circumflexion” affecting the tones of Baltic descendants of Proto-Indo-European root nouns with the long roots (e.g., *ĝhu̯ēr ‘wild animal’). Monosyllabic Circumflexion denotes that a large number of monosyllabic words exhibit a circumflex tone (a rising tone in Lithuanian) instead of the expected acute (a falling tone in Lithuanian): e.g., geríeji ‘the good’~ tie͂ ‘they.’ Yamazaki argued that it is possible to explain why Latvian sā̀ls ‘salt’ and gùovs ‘cow’ have the circumflex tone, while Lithuanian širdìs (3) ‘heart’, šerdis (1/3/4) ‘the core of a wood’, žvėrìs (3) ‘wild animal’ and nósis (1) ‘nose’ have the acute tone, by proposing a more accurate relative chronology of Monosyllabic Circumflexion and morphological changes such as a shift of grammatical genders or the stem formations.
Kristina Bukelskytė-Čepelė (Stockholm University) addressed a number of aspects concerning the structure of nominal compounds found in the Early Written Latvian texts of the 16th-17th centuries. The analysis, in particular, focused on the nominal compounds attested in the first surviving published dictionary of Latvian, i.e. Georg Mancelius’ Lettus, Das iſt Wortbuch (1638). It was argued that in this dictionary the possessive compounds and the determinative compounds seemed to have been formed according to two distinctly different patterns. In addition, it was shown that even some obvious loan-translations from German could have been coined according to the same recurring structural pattern. A comparison with the Lithuanian compositional system revealed that this structural pattern may, in fact, be derived from an East Baltic common compositional pattern.
Jenny Larsson (Stockholm University) discussed the etymologies of three Prussian deities described in the Preussische Chronik (1517-1521) by Simon Grunau: Patols, Perkuns and Patrimps. It was argued that the structure of the names Patols and Patrimps follow a common Baltic name forming pattern for “god’s names” involving the noun PBalt. *patis ‘lord, master’, cf. Žemė-patis ‘master of the earth’, Dimsti-patis ‘master of the household’, Wejo-patis ‘master of the wind’, Lauk-patis ‘master of the fields’. Both Patols and Patrimps could hence be interpreted as compound names with the noun *pat(i)- as the first member. In particular the semantic parallel between the Lithuanian Žemė-patis (žemė ‘earth’ + patis ‘master’) ‘master of the earth’ and the Old Prussian Pat-tols (patis ‘master’ + OPr. EV talus ‘earth, ground’) ‘master of the earth’ was highlighted. In light of these new etymological interpretations, the Early Baltic pantheon was discussed and analyzed in the context of inter-regional contacts around the Baltic Sea.
On the evening of the first day, all guests from Lithuania were invited to a welcome gathering organized by the local Lithuanian-American Community. At this gathering, the participants had great opportunity to get acquainted with the members of the community and to hear about the wide range of activities (educational, cultural, religious, sports etc.) that are organized by the Lithuanian-American Community. The community also hosted a literary evening where, for example, Tomas Venclova read some of his poems. The conference at Yale University also provided the setting for the AABS Membership Meeting which was held on the second last day of the conference with participation of as many members as filled a large lecture hall in Linsly-Chittenden Hall. The president of the society, Professor Ain Haas at Indiana University, chaired the meeting and led the discussion in a warm atmosphere. The meeting approved the minute of the previous meeting, reviewed the recent activities of the association, and updated their bylaws among other topics. One of the practical topics was what would be the best way to schedule the dates of a conference, when the members are from many parts of the world where different academic-year systems are employed. Student members were also given chances to present their opinions. Following that, the winners of AABS awards were announced and celebrated, and new members of the board were elected. The meeting finished with the announcement of Baltic Studies Conference in Europe in 2015 in Marburg (Germany) and the next AABS conference in 2016 at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (USA).
Kristina Bukelskytė-Čepelė
Jenny Larsson
Yoko Yamazaki
Department of Baltic languages, Finnish and German
Stockholm University
SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
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