LITUANUS
LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
 
Volume 15, No.3 - Fall 1969
Editors of this issue: Antanas Klimas, Ignas K. Skrupskelis
Copyright © 1969 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.
Lituanus

BOOKS ON LITHUANIAN
(Short Selected and Annotated bibliography)

A. Textbooks.

1. Leonardas Dambriūnas, Antanas Klimas and William R. Schmalstieg, Introduction to Modern Lithuanian, Franciscan Fathers Press, Brooklyn, 1966, VIII and 471 pages, $7.00.

This is a full introductory grammar of Lithuanian in English. It has a long introductory chapter on pronunciation, spelling, accentuation, etc., followed by 40 lessons in which Lithuanian grammar is systematically presented. Each regular lesson has a reading selection, vocabulary for that lesson, grammar, exercises, and a connected conversation of 10 sentences each. Every fifth lesson is a review lesson with various exercises, drawings, reading selections, but no new grammar.

The 40 main lessons are followed by a grammatical appendix in which all of the basic facts of Lithuanian grammar are presented once more in paradigms, charts, etc. In this grammatical appendix there are also chapters on accentuation, verbal prefixes and verbal aspects.

There then follows a short anthology of extra readings, followed in turn by the vocabularies: Lithuanian-English and English-Lithuanian. There is also a detailed index.

This book is available from the publishers and from many other booksellers as well. (See addresses at the end)

There are two keys available for the teachers using this book, and also for bona fide self-learners. One key has the answers for all the exercises, the other contains the English translations of the main reading selections. Tapes for this book are also available. They contain 4 hours of sound recording: all the Lithuanian parts of the 40 main lessons, as well as those of the introductory lesson, are given here, read by native speakers.

The keys and tapes are available only through one of the authors (Prof. Antanas Klimas, Dept. of Languages and Linguistics, University of Rochester, Rochester, N. Y. 14627).

2. Alfred Senn, Handbuch der litauischen Sprache, Band I: Grammatik, Carl Winter, Heidelberg, 1966, 495 p.

This book is a detailed description of Lithuanian grammar and usage, written in German. In 1929 Professr Senn had already written a grammar of Lithuanian in German (Kleine litauische Sprachlehre, 1929), but that book has been sold out for years.

With this Handbuch, Professor Senn gives a very detailed description of Standard (Literary) Lithuanian, with references to its older forms found in writings, and even to some dialect variations. However, there are no connected texts for reading (but see B. Readers below) in this book and no exercises. It is not a book for a beginning language learner, but rather for a more advanced student or for a linguist.

3. M. Variakojytė-Inkenienė, Lithuanian Self-Taught (London, reprinted in 1958).

This small book has no grammar, and no exercises. Basically it contains various conversations with indications as to pronunciation, and some lists of words and expressions. Since its reprinting, it has become available again.

B. Readers, anthologies, chrestomaties:

1. Alfred Senn, Handbuch der litauischen Sprache, Band II: Lesebuch und Glossar, Carl Winter, Heidelberg, 1957, 279 p.

This is intended as the reader to go with the grammar (see A. 2 above), but this book came out 9 years before the grammar itself appeared. It contains samples of Lithuanian folklore and Lithuanian writing of all periods. The reading selections include: 1. Folklore (proverbs, riddles, folktales), 2. Poetry, 3. Prose (narrative prose and non-fiction prose), 4. Religious literature (1547-1950). The book has a full Lithuanian-German and -English vocabulary for all the readings.

2. William R. Schmalstieg and Antanas Klimas, Lithuanian Reader for Self-Instruction, Franciscan Fathers Press, Brooklyn, 1967, 64 p., $1.00.

This small paperback contains 10 very short selections on Lithuanian folklore, and several of the more outstanding Lithuanian authors. This is perhaps the only reader for any language in the world in which every word and every form of each word is given and translated. In addition to this the entire sentence is translated. This reader can be used for a quick introduction to reading, or for getting acquainted swiftly with the Lithuanian grammatical structure.

C. Dictionaries.

1. Vilius Pėteraitis, Lietuviškai angliškas žodynas -Lithuanian-English Dictionary, Lietuviškos Knygos Klubas, Chicago, 1960.

This dictionary contains about 30,000 words and expressions. It is intended, as the author himself says in the preface, primarily for Lithuanians. Thus, no accentuation marks, principal part of verbs, etc., are given. But it can be used for general reading of Lithuanian texts, literature, etc.

2. B. Piesarskas, B. Svecevičius, Lietuvių-anglų kalbų žodynas (Lithuanian-English Dictionary), Vilnius, 1956.

This dictionary, too, is intended for native Lithuanians learning English. It contains about 27,000 words and expressions, but has only a very few accent marks, i.e., where it is necessary to differentiate the Lithuanian homonyms, such as kartis, 'mane' and kartis 'pole'.

3. Max Niedermann, Franz Brender, Alfred Senn and Anton Salys, Woerterbuch der litauischen Schriftsprache, Carl Winter, Heidelberg, 5 volumes, 1924-1968.

This is the largest complete Lithuanian-German dictionary in the world. It was started in 1924 by Professors M. Niedermann, A. Senn and F. Brender, but from the middle of the second volume it has been continued and now completed by Alfred Senn and Anton (Antanas) Salys. In its huge 5 volumes it contains almost all the words and expressions used in Modern Standard Lithuanian in books, newspapers, etc. All the Lithuanian words are provided with stress marks, with indication of the accent class in nouns, adjectives, etc.

There are several dozen more dictionaries: Lithuanian-Russian, Russian-Lithuanian, English-Lithuanian, French-Lithuanian, Latin-Lithuanian, etc. There are also several special bilingual dictionaries for technical fields, and several dictionaries of Lithuanian in Lithuanian. The largest and the most important one of the latter group is the Great Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalbos žodynas), seven huge volumes of which have been published in Vilnius. These seven volumes contain entries from a to mėlti. When it is completed (completion projected for 1980), this dictionary will consist of about fifteen volumes. In size and in the number of entries it will be very similar to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Most of these books are available from their publishers, bookstores, and other places. Main publishers in this field are Fransciscan Fathers Press, 910 Willoughby Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11221, USA; Lietuvių Knygos Klubas, 4545 West 63rd Street, Chicago, I11. 60629, USA.

Antanas Klimas 
The University of Rochester