Baltist & Orientalist, Ethnologist
Cell. ph. +370 67746906, e-mail: palmaitis@yahoo.co.uk
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OSTRACISM
Having being granted with the doctor degree at Vilnius University, having published a lot of research articles in University's Baltistic periodical and in acknowledged journals abroad, having been referred to in such basic works as "Indoeuropean and Indoeuropeans" by Vyacheslav Ivanov and Thamaz Gamqrelidze, "Theoretical Bases of Indo-European Linguistics" by Winfred P. Lehmann, "Le lingue baltiche" by Pietro Dini, -
Dr. Letas Palmaitis has suddenly appeared to be a "para-scholar" in Lithuania because "the revival of languages is not any object of the comparative historical linguistics". This label, produced by former colleagues in Vilnius, has been spread and repeated in Klaipeda, the main centre of Baltic linguistics in Lithuania after ousting Prof. V. Maziulis from Vilnius and subsequent ruination of Baltic studies in Vilnius. Everywhere in Lithuanian academic circles and even in the main work of Prof. Zigmas Zinkevicius the name Palmaitis is mentioned in connection with the revival of Prussian, as if this hobby has been the single manifestation of his linguistic activities. At the same time the main work of his life - the monograph "Development of the Grammatical System of the Baltic Languages" - is not mentioned by Z. Zinkevicius at all.