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Nationality and Language in the East Baltic Area
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2018
Extract
The Treaties of Tartu, Moscow, and Riga (1920), riders to the Treaty of Versailles in their acceptance of ethnic self-sufficiency, recognized the four major peoples of the East Baltic littoral area as political entities with the unhampered right to live their present and to determine their future. Whatever may have been the hopes and doubts of those who framed the treaty, its short-term results must have exceeded the most liberal expectations. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, in twenty-one packed years of independent existence, showed that a national will, if wisely directed, could maintain economic and political stability, be tolerant to national minorities, and enrich culture with new values.
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- Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1947
References
1 The heroic name Kalev(a) appears, according to one view, to be a word of Germanic origin (cf.0. Icelandic Kylfingr, from Kylfa, club), borrowed into West Somian (West Finnic) through O. Russian kolobjaga, man-at-arms. Another view connects it with a Baltic source (cf. Lith. kálvis, Latv. kalējs, blacksmith).
2 Somian, a term familiar to East Baltic scholarship is superior to Finnic because of the prevalent confusion of Finnic with Finnish. Somian represents a comprehensive language group, Finnish an individual member of it.
3 This name, derived from Tacitus (vide his essay “De origine et situ Germanorum,” c. 45), was consistently used by the Lithuanian scholar K. Būlga (e.g. “Aistiški studijai,” St. Petersburg, 1908) and is still to be met with in the writings of his more zealous pupils. Baltic is preferable, though it is even more arbitrary in its linguistic than it is in its political application.
4 Both Permian and East Somian are subdivisions of the larger Somian: the first comprises the north-easterly Komian (Zyrianian) and Votyakian, the second —the southwesterly Mordvinian and Marian (Cheremissian).
5 Vide my paper “The Language Pattern of the U.S.S.R.” (“Slavonic Review” No. 65, London, 1947), a synopsis of my forthcoming “Languages of the U.S.S.R. A Study in Linguistic Geography and Typology.”
6 Vide Wiklund, K. B., “Finno-Ugrier” in M. Ebert, “Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte,” vol. 3 (Berlin, 1925)Google Scholar. Setälä, E. N., “Suomensukuisten kansojen esihistoria” in A. Kannisto and others, “Suomen suku,” Vol. I (Helsinki, 1926)Google Scholar; and Manninen, I., “Suomensukuiset kansat” (Porvoo, 1929)Google Scholar.
7 Hackman, A., “Die ältere Eisenzeitin Finnland” (Helsingfors, 1905)Google Scholar.
8 The inclusive term Aryan, as revived by Otto Jespersen and used by both linguists (e.g., H. Sweet, B. Munkácsi) and archaeologists (V.G. Childe) in the twentieth century, is much to be preferred to the ungainly compound Indo-European, a relic of a hyphenating age, (1) because it is a single and succinct term, and (2) because it helps to relieve the terminological congestion resulting from the continued abuse of the Renascence (Columbian) “witch-word” Indo-, which has insinuated itself not only into geography (e.g., Indo-China, Indonesia, East Indies, West Indies), but into linguistics as well, both as prefix (e.g., Indo-Germanic, Indo-Hittite, Indo-Uralian, Indo-Aryan) and as suffix (e.g., American Indian, Amerindian).
9 In medieval German and Polish chronicles “Sudavian” and “Yatvingian” are treated as synonyms. Vide Gerullis, G., “Baltische Völker” in M. Ebert, “Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte,” Vol. I (Berlin, 1924), p. 337Google Scholar.
10 Pēteris Šmits (Schmidt), “Hērodota zinas par senajiem baltiem” (Riga, 1936) and “Ievads baltu filologijā” (Riga, 1936). Niederle, L. (“Slovanské starožitnosti,” Vol. I, Prague, 1904)Google Scholar identifies the Neuri with the Slavs.
11 Vide “Kritik der ältesten Nachrichten über den skythischen Norden (Vienna, 1889).
12 Vide Ahlquist, A., “Suomen kielen rakennus”(Helsinki, 1877)Google Scholar; Eliot, C. N. E., “Finnish Grammar” (Oxford, 1890)Google Scholar; E. N. Setälä, “Suomen kielioppo” (Helsinki, 1925); and “Suomen kielen lauseoppi” (Helsinki, 1926); J. Budenz, “Finn nyelvtan,” Budapest, 1926); L. Hakulinen, “Suomen kielen rakenneja vehitys,” I-II (Helsinki, 1941-46).
13 An allative in -nne also exists in a fossilized adverbial form, e.g tuonne., (thither), Untie(hither), muuanne (elsewhither).
14 Cf. the Russian and German mode of reckoning time: polovina pjatogo, halb fünf (4.30).
15 This, like the hypothesis based on archaeological investigation, is of course only surmise. For the latest view, which identifies the Uralian peoples with the bearers of the neolithic comb-pottery culture of north-eastern Europe and so makes the Somians aboriginal in the East Baltic area, vide H. Kruus (ed.), “Eesti ajalugu,” vol. I (Tartu, 1936), also A. M. Tallgren, “Rahvuslised olud eelajaloolisel ajal Ida-Baltikumis ja pôhjapoolses Ida-Euroopas,” in “Eesti Kirjandus” (Tartu, 1923), and R. Indreko, “Eesti rahva asumisest oma kodumaale”, in “Kodukolle”, No. 6 (Stockholm, 1946).
16 J. Bosworth, “King Alfred's Anglo-Saxson Version of the Compendious History of the World by Orosius” (London, 1859), and H. Sweet, “Extracts from Alfred's Orosius” (Oxford, 1893).
17 F. Jonson, “Heimskringla. Noregs konunga Sogur” (Copenhagen, 1936).
18 “Cornelii Taciti libri qui supersunt.” Post C. Halm-G. Andresen denuo curavit E. Koestermann. Tomus posterior. (Leipzig, 1936), pp. 246-247. Aestii appears as Aesti in Cassiodorus (“Variae.” Rec. T. Mommsen, Berlin, 1894) and Jordanes (“De Getarum sive Gothorum origine et rebus gestis.” Ed. C. A. Closs, Stuttgart, 1861).
19 Vide H. Ojansuu, “Viron kieli” in “Tietosanakirja” (Helsinki, 1919); O. Loorits, “Eesti kule grammatika” (Tartu, 1922); A. Saareste, “Eesti, die Esten und die estnische Sprache” in F. J. Wiedemann, “Estnisch-deutsches Wörterbuch” (Tartu, 19233); L. Kettunen, “Eestin kielen offikirja” (Porvoo, 1926) and “Oppikirja eestin ja Suomen eroavaisuuksista” (Helsinki, 19262).
20 “Grammatik der estnischen Sprache” (St. Petersburg, 1875).
21 The p of pole [ = ei ole, is not) derives by missyllabification from an earlier ep (cf. Liv. äb), like English n in “newt” (-A.S. efeta).
22 This theory was advanced by the Latvian archaeologist F. Balodis in the 1920-ies. Vide “Latvijas archaiolog'îja” (Riga, 1926).
23 Vide Wiedemann, F. J., “J. A. Sjogren's Livische Grammatik nebst Sprachproben (St. Petersburg, 1861)Google Scholar and L. Kettunen, “Untersuchung über die livische Sprache (Tartu, 1925).
24 Vide A. Brückner, “Litauisch” in W. Streitberg “Geschichte der indogermanischen Sprachwissenschaft” (Strassburg, 1916); R. Trautmann, “Baltisch-Slavisches Wöterbuch” (Göttingen, 1923); A. Senn, “On the Degree of Kinship between Slavic and Baltic” (“Slavonic Year-Book,” American Series I, 1941).
25 Vide J.Sehwers, “Die deutschen Lehnwörter im Lettischen” (Zürich, 1918).
26 Vide J. Endzelin, “Lettische Grammatik” (Riga, 1922; Heidelberg 1923) and J. Endzelīns un K. Mülenbachs “Latviešu grammatika” (Riga, 19345).
27 The difference between the glottalized and the falling tone has been lost in the western (tāmnieku) dialect.
28 Gerullis, G., “Mosvid. Die ältesten litauischen Sprachdenkmäler bis zum Jahre 1570” (Heidelberg, 1923)Google Scholar and “Senieji lietuvių skaitymai” I (Kaunas, 1927).
29 Vide K. Jaunius-K. Būlga, “Grammatika litovskago jazyka” (St. Petersburg, 1908-1916); Rygiškių Jonas (pseud, of J. Jablonskis), “Lietuviš, kalbos gramatika” (Kaunas, 19222); P. Klimas, “Lietuviš. kalbos sintaksė” (Kaunas, 19246); R. Ekblom, “Manuel phonétique de la langue lituanienne” (Stockholm, 1922); P. Skardžius, “Bendrines lietuviš. kalbos kirčiavimas” (Kaunas, 1936); A. Senn, “Kleine litauische Sprachlehre” (Heidelberg, 1929); A. Senn, “The Lithuanian Language. A Characterization” (Chicago, 1942).
30 Low Lithuanian (Samogitian) appears to have a rising-falling tone here.
31 Vide A. Brückner, “Die slavischen Fremdwörter im Litauischen” (Weimar, 1877), and Pr. SkardZius, “Die slavischen Lehnworter im Altlitauischen” (Kaunas, 1931).
32 Vide E. N. Setälä, op. cit., in “Suomen suku” I (Helsinki, 1926) and B. Collinder, “Indo-uralisches Sprachgut” (Uppsala, 1936).
33 Vide Thomsen, V., “Beröringer mellem de finske pg de baltiske (litauisk-lettiske) Sprog” (Copenhagen, 1890)Google Scholar and J. Kalima, “Itämerensuomalaisten kielten balttilaiset lainasanat (Helsinki, 1936).