Geoffrey Russom. 2017. The Evolution of Verse Structure in Old and Middle English Poetry: From the Earliest Alliterative Poems to Iambic Pentameter. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xi + 319 pp., 42 tables, £ 67.99.

This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Peer Reviewe

Eric Weiskott. 2016. English Alliterative Verse: Poetic Tradition and Literary History. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xiv + 236 pp., 6 figures, £ 64.99.

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.Peer Reviewe

Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation

The Collaborative Research Center 1412 “Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation” (CRC 1412) investigates the role of register in language, focusing in particular on what constitutes a language user’s register knowledge and which situational-functional factors determine a user’s choices. The following paper is an extract from the frame text of the proposal for the CRC 1412, which was submitted to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 2019, followed by a successful onsite evaluation that took place in 2019. The CRC 1412 then started its work on January 1, 2020. The theoretical part of the frame text gives an extensive overview of the theoretical and empirical perspectives on register knowledge from the viewpoint of 2019. Due to the high collaborative effort of all PIs involved, the frame text is unique in its scope on register research, encompassing register-relevant aspects from variationist approaches, psycholinguistics, grammatical theory, acquisition theory, historical linguistics, phonology, phonetics, typology, corpus linguistics, and computational linguistics, as well as qualitative and quantitative modeling. Although our positions and hypotheses since its submission have developed further, the frame text is still a vital resource as a compilation of state-of-the-art register research and a documentation of the start of the CRC 1412. The theoretical part without administrative components therefore presents an ideal starter publication to kick off the CRC’s publication series REALIS. For an overview of the projects and more information on the CRC, see https://sfb1412.hu-berlin.de/

[Prūsų lietuvis] : recenzija

Recenzijoje aptariama Vilijos Gerulaitienės parengta knyga „Teodoras Lepneris, Prūsų lietuvis“, kuri laikoma antru reikšmingiausiu po Mato Pretorijaus etnografiniu veikalu apie lietuvininkus. Pažymima, kad Būdviečių parapijos kunigo Teodoro Lepnerio kūrinys „Prūsų Lietuvis“ supažindina su XVII amžiaus Mažosios Lietuvos lietuvių gyvenimo būdu, kalba, apranga, mitybos įpročiais, tikėjimu, muzika ir krikštynų, vestuvių bei laidotuvių papročiais. Konstatuojama, kad publikacija parengta pagal Valstybinėje Prūsijos kultūros paveldo bibliotekoje rastą kurfiurstui Frydrichui III dedikuotą rankraštį su plunksna piešta spalvota iliustracija. Akcentuojama, kad V. Gerulaitienė įžangoje pateikia pagrindinę informaciją apie autorių ir jo kūrinį, o I. Šidiškienė įvertina T. Lepnerio etnografinius duomenis. Konstatuojama, kad pagrindinė dalis yra vokiško teksto transkripcija kartu su V. Gerulaitienės komentuojamu lietuviškuoju vertimu. Recenzijos autorė turi priekaištų turinio rodyklės sudarymo principams: iš šios rodyklės, jos manymu, nematyti aiškios knygos struktūros. Taip pat kvestionuojamas teksto išdėstymas, pabrėžiant, kad jis optimalus tiems, kurie nori skaityti lietuvišką variantą, bet kelia sunkumų tiems, kurie nori skaityti vokiškąją dalį. Recenzijoje aptariami kai kurie veikalo kultūros istorijos aspektai. Konstatuojama, kad nepaisant iškeltų diskutuotinų momentų, V. Gerulaitienės parengta primiršto rankraščio publikacija naudinga tyrinėjantiems T.Lepnerio kūryb

The 'London Glossary' (London, British Library: C38.b.47, fols. [1-6]): a late 17th century Lithuanian-English glossary

Among the collection of rare Lithuanian books at the British Library in London is the only known copy of the anonymous Calvinist catechism PRADZIA PAMOKSLA Del Mazu Weykialu Karalauciuy / Drukawoia REISNERA TEWAYNIEY. MEATU M. DC. LXXX (shelf marked C.38.b.47). This octavo contains 40 printed pages, which are preceded by a mounted six-page handwritten Lithuanian-English glossary. It is not known how this Calvinist catechism reached England from Königsberg; one can only deduce that this happened shortly after the publication was printed in 1680. It is also not precisely known when and where the anonymous Calvinist catechism became the property of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), the famous naturalist, collector and founding father of the British Museum. It is surmised that Sloane acquired the catechism somewhere between 1689 and 1725. Only Sloane’s library pressmark was found in the exemplar; it seems that previous owners of the book did not leave any marks. The handwritten glossary, so aptly dubbed the ‘London Glossary’ by Alfonsas Laučka, was already bound to the catechism when it was acquired by Sloane. As the manuscript was re-bound in 1932, details of the original measurements and binding are now unknown. The glossary is written in ink, all in one hand, but the author is unknown. Based on specific features of English orthography, the manuscript is dated to the end of the 17th century. The manuscript of the glossary was never published, so this is the first publication of the ‘London Glossary’ and critical evaluation of the text

Jun Terasawa. Old English Metre: An Introduction. Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series 7. Toronto/Buffalo/London: University of Toronto Press, 2011, xiv + 154 pp., 45.00(hb)/ 45.00 (hb)/ 19.95 (pb).

Peer Reviewe

Richard M. Hogg and R. D. Fulk. A Grammar of Old English. Volume 2: Morphology. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, xv + 392 pp., £ 75.00.

Peer Reviewe

Old Lithuanian order issued in 1578 in Prussian Lithuania

Three handwritten copies of an order issued by George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg- Ansbach, have recently come to light in the Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Berlin). Two of these, A and B, had been edited before by Jurgis Gerullis (1927), but were meanwhile considered lost. The third one, K, has been newly discovered in a file of drafts which also contained the German drafts both for the text of the order and the Duke’s accompanying letter to the church administrations of Tilsit and Ragnit. It is edited here with the variants from A, B and a photograph of the lost copy U, and together with the two German drafts. The edition is accompanied by a full commentary and glossary. George Frederick, nephew of the first Prussian duke Albert of Brandenburg, took over the administration of the Duchy of Prussia after Albert’s son had been declared unfit to rule. The order, dating from December 1578 and addressed to the church administration of Tilsit, admonishes the members of the Protestant church district of Tilsit to fulfil their obligations as Christians and refrain from heathen practices. It is the earliest extant administrative document written in Old Lithuanian

Altlitauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (ALEW). Version 1.1: Forschungsdaten und Dokumentation

Die hier veröffentlichten Forschungsdaten wurden ursprünglich im Rahmen eines zweiphasigen DFG-Projekts in den Jahren 2007 – 2013 zum Altlitauischen etymologischen Wörterbuch (ALEW) an der Professur für historisch-vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft der HU Berlin erarbeitet. Die gleichnamige Buchpublikation erschien 2015 in drei Bänden beim baar-Verlag, Hamburg. Für die online-Sicherung und Zugänglichmachung auf dem edoc-Server der HU Berlin wurden die Forschungsdaten teilweise umstrukturiert, s. die begleitende Dokumentation „Vorbemerkungen zu ALEW Version 1.1“. Eine pdf-Version ist zugänglich unter der DOI 10.18452/19817. – Gegenstand des ALEW ist der Erb- und Lehnwortschatz des Litauischen vom Überlieferungsbeginn bis 1700. Die einzelnen Stichwort-Artikel verzeichnen: Wortart; Bedeutung(en); Erstbeleg und ggf. weitere interessante Belege einschließlich deutscher, polnischer, lateinischer oder niederländischer Parallelstellen; (mögliche) innerbaltische, baltoslavische oder indogermanische Entsprechungen; Auffälligkeiten hinsichtlich Verbreitung, Beleglage, Form und Bedeutung im Litauischen; Theorien zur Etymologie und Wortgeschichte der übergeordneten Wortfamilie.The .sql and .json data form part of the Altlitauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (ALEW), Version 1.1 (cf. also the .pdf-version, DOI 10.18452/19817). They were originally collected in a two-phase DFG-project, which was run between 2007 and 2013 at the chair of historical-comparative linguistics at Humboldt university, Berlin. They were first published as a three-volume book publication by baar, Hamburg. For the long-term storage and online publication at Humboldt university’s online repository, the data were partially restructured as is described in the pdf-file “Vorbemerkungen zu ALEW Version 1.1”. – ALEW registers the inherited and loan lexicon of Old Lithuanian, which is defined as the period between the language’s first attestation and 1700. The entries contain information concerning: word class; meaning; references to first attestations as well as further interesting passages, including indications of German, Polish, Latin or Dutch parallels; (possible) Baltic, Slavic or Indo-European cognates; specificities in areal distribution, attestation, form, and meaning in Lithuanian; a commentary discussing the etymology as well as the formal and semantic development of the members of the respective word family