Petru Maior (; 1761 in Marosvásárhely ''(now Târgu Mureș, Romania)'' – 14 February 1821 in

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) was a

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writer who is considered one of the most influential personalities of the

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(the ''

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''). Maior was a member of the

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clergy, a historian, philosopher, and linguist.

Works

Petru Maior took a stand and responded, in 1812, by writing the "''History of the Beginnings of the Romanians in Dacia''" against all those who questioned the origin, character, and the becoming of his people. Among his works are * "''Didahii''" (1809), * "''Propovedanii''" (1809), * "''Prediche''" (Sermons) (1810–1811) * "''Istoria pentru începutul românilor în Dachia''" (History of the beginnings of the Romanians in Dacia) (1812) * "''Istoria Besearicei românilor''" (History of Romanian Church) (1813). He was a prolific writer, who published everything he wrote during his lifetime except for two theological works: "''Procanon''" (1783) and "''Protopopadichia''" (The power of the archpriests) (1795). The ''Buda Lexicon'', a book published in 1825, included two texts by Petru Maior, ''Orthographia romana sive latino-valachica una cum clavi'' and ''Dialogu pentru inceputul linbei române'', in which he introduced the letters ș for and ț for , which have since been in use in the

Romanian alphabet The Romanian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Romanian language. It is a modification of the classical Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters, five of which (Ă, Â, Î, Ș, and Ț) have been modified from t ...

.Marinella Lörinczi Angioni, "Coscienza nazionale romanza e ortografia: il romeno tra alfabeto cirillico e alfabeto latino ", ''La Ricerca Folklorica'', No. 5, La scrittura: funzioni e ideologie. (Apr., 1982), pp. 75–85.

Works

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Further reading