January 5, 1956.
49 OrdruphSjvej, Charlottenlund (Denmark). Ain Letter Professor Morris Halle, 14 H 310, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 39, Mass., U.S.A. My dear Halle, (I suggest ve better drop titles, which, incidentally, ve may to all probability have done long ago, during my stay in the U.S.A., - but which has now become imperative) Thank you ever so much for your very kind letter of December 31, which reached me today. How very kind of you to give me weeks, and not only days, as I optimistical- ly suggested. May I state that, in British English, I daresay that you are a marvellous chap, and in American (just to make you understand, you know); I bet you are a swell guy. I shall certainly not abuse your open-handed gesture, but I am grateful for your opening the possibility of checking some of my quotations in a paper which in the meantime rapidly developed into something more in the line of general linguistics and a little less in Slavift, - which you would certainly not regret (nor would R.J., who (confidentially speaking) doesnot care a penny (in American it would be a dime, probably) of my so-called knowledge of Slavic). — No, I shall certainly not spread the news. But I better tell you that I did spread it, in strict confidence, to one person; Miss Eli Fischer-JSrgensen, who told me that she is exactly in the same mess as myself, and that she made the terrible mistake of mailing her letter to you (which was 3ent before mine) by surface mail. I understand that she is writing to you again. Thank you for wishing me a tranquil New Year; I must say that you have contributed largely to my tranquillity. Greetings to yourself and others Yours LouisHjelmslev.