LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 39, No.3 - Fall 1993 Editor of this issue: Antanas Klimas, University of Rochester  ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 1993 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

A new scholarly journal: Linguistica Baltica.

The first Volume of a new scholarly journal devoted to Baltic Studies was scheduled to appear in 1992, but the actual publication was somewhat delayed until January 1993. Linguistica Baltica (suggested abbreviation LgB) is edited by Professor Wojciech Smoczynski, Head of the Chair of Baltic Philology at Warsaw University, and his assistant Axel Holvoet. Warsaw University and Poland's Ministry of National Education sponsor the journal.

The need for a journal of this kind needs no stressing. After the demise of Studi Baltici (founded by the Italian Giacomo Devoto) the only scholarly organ devoted exclusively to Baltic Linguistics has been Boltistica, which began appearing in Vilnius in 1965. There was no journal of this type published outside of Lithuania.

The bulk of the articles published in the first volume is of high scholarly value and followed the standards set by the editors in the preface. The list of contributors is truly international and includes such well-known specialists in the field of Baltic as E.P. Hamp and W.R. Schmalstieg from the United States, a few Germans like W. Euler, W. Tenhage and R. Eckert, Lithuanians, Latvians and Russians. Zigmas Zinkevičius, the former Head of the Chair of Lithuanian at Vilnius University, discusses the fateful history of Lithuanian in East Prussia.

The two editors contribute a paper each from their special fields of research. Holvoet takes up syntactic issues of Latvian, whereas Smoczynski deals with some of his favorite problems in Old Prussian.

The well printed volume of 302 pages contains also one review, an obituary on Jan Safarewicz (1904-1992) and notes on conferences that faill within Baltic.

A special feature of this first volume is the "Current Bibliography of Baltic Linguistics for 1990 and 1991." Axel Holvoet has compiled this very useful research tool, and it is to be hoped that the bibliography will be continued in subsequent volumes of LgB. Wojcieck Smoczynski is well known in the scholarly world because of his numerous publications, both monographs and thoroughly researched articles above all on Old Prussian. Scholars in the field of Baltic are grateful to him for the labor he expended on founding the new journal. He is truly the spiritus movens of Baltic Studies in the last decade of the 20th century. We wish him well for his new journal.

Editorial Address
Linguistica Baltica
Katedra Filologii Baltyckiej UW
PL-00-312 Warszawa, ul. Dobra 56
Fax: -267520; e-mail: ULWSMOCZSPLKRCT11.BITNET

The subscription is US $ 20 (for individuals), US $ 40 (for libraries)

Alfred Bammesberger
Katholische Universität Eichstätt