Dr. Letas PALMAITIS
Balticist & Orientalist, Ethnologist
Cell. ph. +370 67746906, e-mail: [email protected]
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1. Introduction
2. Positions and grants
3. Research work: Orientalistics, Indoeuropean and General linguistics,
Indoeuropean and Baltic linguistics, PRUSSOLOGY
4. Life programme: N.-Baltic boundary, Toponyms, Rurik, Experimantal Prussian,
Documented novel about Ingermanland
5. Support
PRUSSOLOGY
Prussology belongs to Baltistics. Nevertheless it should be specially distinguished here because Dr. L. Palmaitis followed his teacher V. Maziulis even in this field, and it became central in all his subsequent research.
Already in his monograph Development of the Grammatical System of the Baltic Languages Dr. L. Palmaitis has set forth a number of solutions for mostly discorded items of the linguistic research of Prussian. First and foremost this concerns the problem of "articles" in Samlandian Catechisms. The analysis shows that the "articles" cannot be simlply explained as a slavish literal transposition from the German original text, because the Prussian Samlandian text becomes either ambiguos, or grammatically unclear without them. The single conclusion may be that they were burdened with the syntactical function of indicating the case. The system of the nominal case inflections was destroyed in many instances due to phonetical reasons, while it was still preserved in pronouns because of the different stems used in different cases. These are namely pronouns which look like "articles" in Samlandian texts. Dr. L. Palmaitis also revealed alternations of the circumflex origin of the type -a/ -ai, -e/ -ei, generalised in ultima. This helped to solve some obscurities in understanding verbal forms. Recently Dr. L. Palmaitis has started to develop the idea that the difference between Pomezanian of the Elbing Vocabulary (the 13th / 14th c.) and Samlandian of the Catechisms was equal to difference between 2 languages (Prussian and Yatvingian, or strongly Yatvingised Prussian), but it was not a chronologically dialectal difference. Therefore Pomezanian remained the same as in the 13th c. (the Elbing Vocabulary), but it strongly differed from that of "Yatvingian" Samlandian in the 16th c., because the grammatical system of the latter was incompatible due to phonetical processes caused by differences in phonology.
Publications:
Monographs
1. [Together with Bonifacas Stundzia] CATECHISMUS IN PREUßNISCHER SPRACH, UND DAGEGEN DAS DEUDSCHE. First published: 1545. 6th reprint: Vilnius 1995. Introduction, text, philological comments, reconstruction. / In: Bibliotheca Baltica. Vilnius: Pradai 1995.
2. PRUSSIAN RECONSTRUCTIONS. Including Five languages' dictionary of Old Prussian. Visit: http://donelaitis.vdu.lt/prussian
3. Lecicon Borussicum Vetus: Concordantia et lexicon inversum. / Bibliotheca Clossiana, Lingua Borussica vetus, I. Domus Editoria Universitatis Vytauti Magni. Kaunas 2007.
4. Old Prussian Written Monuments: Texts with facsimile and transliteration, reconstruction and comments. / Bibliotheca Clossiana, Lingua Borussica vetus, II. Lithuanians' World Center for Advancement of Culture. Science and Education. Kaunas 2007.
5. Prusiska Chrestomatija: Old and Experimental Prussian. / Bibliotheca Clossiana, Lingua Borussica nova, I. Lithuanians' World Center for Advancement of Culture. Science and Education. Kaunas 2007.
Articles
1. The origin of forms of the Prussian personal pronouns [in Lithuanian] / Bl 12, 1976, 2, 156 - 165.
2. One detail: BPT penega as a non-lengthened partitive form [in Lithuanian] / Bl 14, 1978, 1, 55.
3. [Together with Vladimir Toporov] From the reconstruction of Old Prussian toward the recreation of Neo-Prussian [in Russian]. / In: Balto-Slavic Researches. Institute for Slavic and Balkan Studies [Moscow], 1983, p. 36 - 63.
4. Optativ und Personalendungen im Prussischen. / Bl 21, 1985, 2, 159 - 169.
5. Borussica: 1. Stai Gennai - ein Nomen Collectivum? 2. astits, billits - das prußische Modus Relativus? / Bl 25, 1989, 2, 126 - 133.
6. Review: G.Kraft Skalwynas, Grammatika prusiskas billas. Dieburg: Tolkemita 1982. / Bl 25, 1989, 2, 179 - 187.
7. Borussica: 3. Über die Herkunft der Form kaulins in der prußischen Katechismen-sprache; 4. Akzent im Elbinger Vokabular. / Bl 26, 1990, 1, 20 - 22; 26, 1990, 2, 111 - 113.
8. German experience of the revival of Prussian and the New Prussian language. / Interlinguistica Tartuensis [University Tartu] 7, 1990.
9. Probleme der Rekonstruktion der altprussischen Sprache. / In: The 6th International Congress of Baltists. The University Vilnius, 1991, p. 67 - 68.
10. Towards the consequential reconstruction of the First O.Prussian Catechism. / In: Vanished and Vanishing Baltic Peoples. Recreation Problems. Eds. L.Palmaitis & N.Kirsanov, St.-Peterbourg, "Prusa"-"The Ingermanland Union", 1994, p. 29 - 30.
11. Fate of the personal inflections and the alternations ai/a, ei/e in Old Prussian. / In: VII International Congress of the Baltists 13-15 June 1995. Baltistica VII. Theses. Riga: Institute of the Latvian Language, 1995, p. 84-86.
12. [Under Prussian name] Sequential reconstruction of the First Prussian Catechism. / Ponto-Baltica 6, 1995, 53-69.
13. Borussica: 5. Root vocalism in Prussian infinitives. / Bl 30, 1996, 1, 101 - 104.
14. Rekreation als Überprüfung der Rekonstruktion. / Bl 33, 1998, 1, 43 - 46.
15. Über strukturelle Besonderheiten des altprußischen Verbs. / Bl 34, 1999, 2, 187 - 191.
16. Towards identification of language of the Old Prussian Catechisms (In Lithuanian). / In: Vakaru baltu kalbos ir kulturos reliktai. Klaipeda, Center for Baltic Studies of the University of Klaipeda, 2000, Bd. 3, p. 15 - 19.
17. Polish version of 15 / In: Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie, 2000, Bd. 3, p. 501 - 507.
18. Old Prussian share in creating the first Russian State: Break of the Millenium Comments to the Norman Theory. / In: Munera linguistica et philologica Michaeli Hasiuk dedicata. Poznan, University, 2001, p. 141 - 153.
19. Grammatical Incompatibility of 2 Main Prussian "Dialects" as Implication of Different Phonological Systems (in print in Colloquium Pruthenicum 2001, 63-77).
20. Review: Gr.Blaziene, Die baltischen Ortsnamen in Samland. Hydronymia Europaea, Sonderband II, 2000. / Beitrage zur Namenforschung, Bd 40, Hf.2, 2005, 251-261.
21. A comment on the absence of *z [hissing sibilant zh, UTF-8, ALT+0254: ] in Prussian. / Baltistica, 45 (1), 2010, 137-138.
22. Peculiarities of the Old Prussian Verb. / Res Baticae 13, 2013, 61-78