From the Editor


The publication date of this volume of Balkanistica has been moved up, from April of 2004 to February, so that copies of the volume will be available at the 14th Biennial Conference on Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics, Literature and Folklore, to be held April 14-17 here in Oxford, Mississippi. I am eagerly anticipating the conference, which will be held on the campus of The University of Mississippi, home to Balkanistica for the past decade.

Balkanistica celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year; volume 1 was published in Columbus, Ohio in 1974 under the editorship of Ken Naylor. A lot has happened in the Balkans and in Balkan studies in the past thirty years -- both good and bad. Balkanistica itself has mirrored these times with its own professional high and low points. Now, in the year 2004, the journal is strong. Balkanistica's annual distributions have reached over 200 in number, with mailings to nearly twenty foreign countries, as well as thirty libraries stateside and abroad. Submissions to the journal are up substantially from just a few years ago, with a healthy acceptance rate of around 25%. Virtually all countries, peoples and languages of the Balkans are represented in the journal's pages, and all scholarly disciplines have been highlighted in its volumes.

As always, I would like to thank those scholars who recently have helped me with this volume of Balkanistica by evaluating manuscripts for consideration of publication: Jim Augerot, Matthew Baerman, Wayles Browne, Alan Cienki, Henry Cooper, Katherine Crosswhite, Stephen Dickey, Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova, Mark Elson, Dennis Hupchick, Valentina Iepuri, Charles King, John Leafgren, Lorraine Lees, Linda Nelson, Theophilus Prousis, Alexandre Sévigny, Ljupco Spasovski, Kat Tancock, John Treadway and Dorin Uritescu. A special thanks is due Linda Nelson, who helped me with the editing of one of the articles in this volume.

And finally, before I close, a little housekeeping. Wayles Browne has keenly alerted me to an omission from the biography of Emil Vrabie which appeared in the last volume: "Feminine Noun Plurals in Standard Romanian," Slavic and East European Journal 44:4 (Winter 2000) [appeared February 2002], pp. 537-52.

Also in the last volume, there is an erratum in the article by Jelena Milojkovic-Djuric, "Thespian and Musical Life in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian Occupation and Annexation 1878-1914." The author of the book Der Austroslavismus was Andreas Moritsch, not Milorad Ekmecic (page 111).

Until next time!

Donald L. Dyer, Editor
February 1, 2004, Oxford, Mississippi