"THE »MODUS OBLIQUUS« IN THE BALTIC LANGUAGE AREA:
A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON FINNO-UGRIAN
AND INDOEUROPEAN VERB SYSTEMS
SÁNDOR FÖLDVÁRI
Postdoctoral researcher, Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
Budapest;
Visitor lecturer, Department of Classical Philology (Lithuanian
Studies), Kossuth Lajos University, Debrecen, Hungary;
The author of the paper supposes that the present audience on
the con-ference also the readers of the printed version are
familiar with the common phenomena of cultures of Baltic
peoples, e. g. the modus obliquus or modus relativus in the
verb system. There is no room here for the detailed introduction
to the theme, more, we can recommend you so excellent studies
on the field as AMBRAZAS, 1970 of the Indoeuropean side and, in
turn, IKOLA, 1953 from the Finno-Ugristics. We try here to
summarise the results of the earlier works and to discuss the
question of the Baltic language and cultural union.
Since the modus obliquus (MO) exists only in Estonian and
Livonian, no other Baltic Finnic languages, and, from the other
hand, since the MO exists only in Latvian than in Lithuanian,
no other Baltic Finnic languages (it is absent in Prussian), it
seems to be very logical to say that the MO is a result of areal
contacts, or, that the MO is a very special isogloss of Baltic
language union. The morphosyntactic criteria of the Baltic
language union is analysed e.g. by STOLZ, 1977. The sources are
well-researched by the dialectology, e. g. PAJUSALU, 1996. also
in the field of phonology, cf. VABA, 1997 but sources of
morpho-syntactical common features in the common cultural
development of Baltic peoples are less analysed. The Prague
school (TRUBETZKOY, 1928. JAKOBSON, 1931.) based the modern
school of phonology that is why they established areal models
only on the base of phonologic phenomena. — It is remarkable
that ARUMAA, 1935 analysed the morphosyntactical common
characteristics of Estonian, Livonian and Latvian already at the
Jakobson's time, and his conclusion is almost literally
identical with closing words of AMBRAZAS, 1970 and 1990. — The
time has already come, when there is already “seasonable” the
syntheses of the cultural and areal language contacts. There are
some contributions to this syntheses given in the paper.
REFERENCES, cited in the abstract:
ARUMAA, P[eeter] 1935. Eesti-liivi ja läti ühisest
fraseoloogiast ning süntaksist. EK 14, 124 136.
AMBRAZAS, Vytautas 1970. Dēl lietuviž kalbos netiesioginēs
nuosakos (modus relativus). In: DB 6 13.
AMBRAZAS, Vytautas 1990.Vergleichende Syntax der baltischen
Partizipien. Baltţ kalbţ dalyviţ lyginamoji sintaksç. АМБРАЗАС,
Витаутас: Сравни¬тельный синтакс причастий бальтийских языков.
Vilnius: Mokslas, ISBN 5–420–00338–4
BECKER, H. 1948. Der Sprachbund. Leipzig—Berlin.
DB — Donum Balticum: To Professor Christian S. Stang on the
occasion of his seventieth birthday 15 March 1970. Edited by
Velta RUKE–DRAVINA. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
DÉCSY, Gyula 1973. Die linguistische Struktur Europas:
Vergangenheit – Gegenwart – Zukunft. Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz
HAARMANN, Harald, 1970. Die indirekte erleibnisform als
grammatische Kategorie — Eine eurasische Isoglosse. Wiesbaden.
(Veröffentlichen der Societas Uralo–Altaica, 2.)
IKOLA, Osmo, 1953. Viron ja liivin modus obliquusen histooria.
Helsinki: Suomen Kirjallisuuden Seura (Suomi 106, 4.)
JAKOBSON, Roman, 1931a. Über die phonologischen Sprachbünde. =
JAKOBSON, 19712, 137 143.
JAKOBSON, Roman, 1931b. РОМАН ЯКОБСОН, К характеристике
евроазийского языкого союза. = JAKOBSON, 19712, 144 201.
JAKOBSON, 19712, Selected Writings, I. Phonological Studies. The
Hague—Paris.
PAJUSALU, Karl, 1996. Multiple Linguistic Contacts In: South
Estonian: Variation of Verb Inflection In: Karksi. Turku (Turun
Yliopiston suomalaisen ja yleisen kielitieteen laitoksen
julkaisuja: Publications of the Department of Finnish and
General linguistics of the University of Turku, 54.)
STOLZ, Thomas, 1977. Schprachbund im Baltikum? Estnisch und
Lettisch im Zentrum einer sprachlischen Konvergenzlandschaft.
Bochum: Universitäts-verlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer (BORETZKY, Norbert
— EUNIGER, Werner — STOLZ, Thomas [Eds.], Bohum-Essener Beiträge
zur Schprachwandel-forschung, 13.)
TRUBETZKOY, Nikolas, 1928. Proposition 16. In: Actes du premier
congrčs international de linguists ŕ La Haye, du 10-15 avril
1928. Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff, 1928. 17 18.
VABA, Lembit, 1997. Uurimusi läti-eesti keelesuhetast. Tallinn—
Tampere: Eesti Keele Instituut, Tamperen Yliopiston Suomen
Kielen ja Yleisen Kielitieseen Laitos, ISBN –9985–851–52–
