From the Editor


Welcome back, everyone.

Last year's volume 15, Papers from the Third Conference on Formal Approaches to Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics, was just the third "theme-based" volume of the new Balkanistica era. I expect such volumes to be published only with occasional frequency in the near future. Standard fare will of course be volumes such as this one, another collection of independently submitted and refereed manuscripts of an interdisciplinary nature.

I am personally and professionally very gratified by several things in this volume. The first is how diverse it is -- articles on history and linguistics, sociology, media and culture, but something not yet seen in the new incarnation of the journal -- philosophy. Also important to me as an editor in search of Balkan inclusiveness and diversity are the articles by Indo-Europeanist Eric Hamp and the various review articles and book reviews which deal with Turkey and Moldova, countries considered by many to be only peripheral regions to the Balkans.

The number of reviews in this volume has grown exponentially since volume 14. That is by design and in my opinion signals to the academic world that Balkanistica has reached significant enough status that publishers want to see their books reviewed in its pages. We are more than happy to oblige them.

I would like to thank the following scholars for their help in reviewing manuscripts recently submitted to Balkanistica: Catalin Anghelina, Jim Augerot, Josette Baer, Rozmeri Basic, Masha Belyavski-Frank, Margaret Beissinger, Cristina Bradatan, Matei Calinescu, Henry Carey, Annemarie Weyl Carr, Aurelian Craiutu, Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova, Mark Elson, Martha Forsyth, John Georgeoff, Jane Hacking, Valentina Iepuri, Paul Michelson, Linda Nelson, Svetlina Nikolova, Jan Perkowski, Theophilus Prousis, Anne Quinney, Steven Roper, Catherine Rudin, Christina Stoyanova, John Treadway, Cynthia Vakareliyska and Jeffrey Watt. Special thanks are again due John Treadway and Cynthia Vakareliyska for their editing assistance in this volume.

And I have saved for last the most important, albeit somewhat difficult, matter ‹ the dear colleagues in Balkan linguistics who have left us since the last volume was published: Kostas Kazazis and Emil Vrabie. Dedications to their lives and their bibliographies are included at the end of this volume.

I had great respect for Emil, although I did not know him personally until just a few years ago. He was a wonderful man and a fine scholar. The time I spent with him at the past two Balkan conferences was special. He will be greatly missed by us all.

Kostas, of course, was like a father to me; he was a member of my doctoral dissertation committee and was at least partly to blame for me becoming a Balkanist. He was an extraordinary man, an outstanding scholar, a renaissance man in every sense of the term, a polyglot, a Balkanist, a dear human being. Kostas, I love you.

Godspeed to both of these fine people. They will be dearly missed, and this volume of Balkanistica is respectfully dedicated to their memory. Until next time.


Donald L. Dyer, Editor
April 2, 2003, Oxford, Mississippi