Critical edition of Old Lithuanian shorter texts from the beginning of written transmission to 1700

• Applicants: Privatdozentin Dr. Anna Helene Feulner; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Hock
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics ; General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 417011097

The project aims at editing all shorter Old Lithuanian texts known to date and making them accessible for future research. We include all texts comprising up to c. 1.000 words from the beginning of written transmission to the year 1700. These much-neglected texts span a wide range of subject areas, genres and aims, from legal matters and (secular or religious) administrative texts to prayers and hymns, praise poems and macaronic poems, but also glosses and citation words found within larger historical, geographical or ethnographical works. The main focus is on a scholarly edition of these texts with commentaries on both language and subject matter. Each text will be translated into German and accompanied by any known German, Polish or Latin source texts. Both as to linguistic and historic aims the project will go well beyond a mere text edition. The texts will be classified, described and placed within their religious, political, legal or historical context. Questions of text transmission will be treated in detail. The linguistic treatment moreover comprises a complete index of words and forms and a grammatical survey, which is intended as a first step towards a historical grammar of Old Lithuanian based on actually attested forms. The results will be published as a three-volume print edition (edition, facsimile, and a lexicon volume with grammar and indexes). The index of words and forms is planned to be made into a separate webbased corpus and online reference tool by ANNIS. In addition, a digital corpus will be created from the annotated texts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants