Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 105. kötet (2008)

Szemle, ismertetések - Riese, Timothy: Serkáli osztják chrestomathia (Sherkal Ostyak Chrestomathy) (szerk. Fejes László) 407

László Fejes (ed.): Serkáli osztják chrestomathia Schmidt Éva Könyvtár 3. MTA Nyelvtudományi Intézet, Budapest, 2008. 250 pages It is a safe assumption that the readers of the Nyelvtudományi Közlemények are familiar with the life and work of Eva Schmidt (1948-2002) who devoted her professional career to the study of the Ob-Ugrian peoples, their cultures, traditions, folklore and languages. It is a mark of singular respect for this extraordinary woman who spent a good portion of her adult life in Western Siberia that her various works and publications are now being gathered and (re)published in a special series (Schmidt Eva könyvtár). The present volume is the third in this series after (1) Jelentések Szibériából (2005) and (2) Nyelv. Nyelvjárás. írásbeliség. Irodalom. (2006). The first two volumes were edited by Mária Sipos, the present one by László Fejes. The editor of the series is Mária Sipos who also wrote two of the chapters in this book (Schmidt Eva és a serkáli hanti nyelvjárás [79-81] and A serkáli szociolingvisztikai helyzetéről és dokumentáltságáról [111-113]) as well as compiling the texts in the Sherkal dialect that make up the third major section of this book. In addition to Fejes and Sipos it would appear that the two lectors, László Honti and Anna Widmer, made valuable contributions to the success of this publication, many of their comments appearing in footnotes interspersed throughout the volume. The title given to the original work by Schmidt is not that of the present volume (Serkáli osztják chrestomathia), but rather Északi osztják nyelvtani jegyzet (serkáli nyelvjárás). It was written by Schmidt to be used in university instruction and was published in Debrecen in a mimeographed version in 1978. Both Sipos and Fejes were of the opinion that the book was worthy of republication „in a worthier form", since the original publication is not readily accessible and since it, even 30 years after appearing for the first time, still offers a valuable contribution to a Khanti dialect no longer spoken. At the same time they also realized that a mere reprinting would not suffice as certain explanations and analyses in the original are questionable. They felt, presumably quite rightly, that Schmidt herself, had she lived longer, would not have wanted to reprint her book without making any changes and made the decision to republish the book without major modifications, but at the same time to bring it up to date, as it were. This they have accomplished in a very satisfactory manner with the use of footnotes to comment on smaller points in Schmidt's grammar and an entire section of the volume to deal with more critical points of analysis.