George Giuglea (January 29, 1884 – April 7, 1967) was an
Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
-born
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n linguist and philologist.
Biography
Origins and education
He was born in
Satulung
Satulung ( Hungarian: ''Kővárhosszúfalu''; German: ''Langendorf'') is a commune in Maramureș County, Romania. Its name, translated in English, means "the long village". It is composed of seven villages: Arieșu de Pădure (''Erdőaranyos''), ...
, a village that today is incorporated into Săcele city, close to
Brașov
Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County.
According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...
in southeast
Transylvania
Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...
. The family were shepherds, and Giuglea's childhood was divided between his native village and
Roseți,
Călărași County
Călărași () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Muntenia, with the county seat at Călărași.
Demographics
In 2011, it had a population of 285,050 and a population density of 56.02/km2.
* Romanians – 94.1% ...
, in the
Romanian Old Kingdom
The Romanian Old Kingdom ( or just ''Regat''; or ) is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Romanian Principalities: Wallachia and Moldavia. The union of the ...
. Like other local shepherds, his parents would leave their mountainous home and cross the border, taking their sheep to spend the winter on the plains, in a warmer climate, close to the
Danube
The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
. Giuglea attended
Andrei Șaguna High School in Brașov, followed by the literature and philosophy faculty of the
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...
in the Romanian capital. His professors included
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu (; 15 February 1840 – 18 June 1917) was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the ''Junimea'' Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Culture of Romania, Romanian culture in ...
,
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga (17 January 1871 – 27 November 1940) was a historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, Albanologist, poet and playwright. Co-founder (in 1910) of the Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), he served as a member of Parliament ...
,
Ioan Bianu
Ioan or Ion Bianu (1856 or 1857 – February 13, 1935) was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian philologist and bibliographer. The son of a peasant family from Transylvania, he completed high school in Blaj, where he became a disciple of Timotei ...
,
Dimitrie Onciul
Dimitrie Onciul (26 October / 7 November 1856 – 20 March 1923) was a Romanian historian. He was a member of the Romanian Academy and its president from 1920 until his death in 1923.
Biography
Onciul was born in Straja, at the time in the Duch ...
and
Simion Mehedinți
Simion Mehedinți (; October 19, 1868 – December 14, 1962) was a Romanian geographer, the founding father of modern Romanian geography, and a titular member of the Romanian Academy. A figure of importance in the ''Junimea'' literary club, ...
.
Ovid Densusianu
Ovid Densusianu (; also known under his pen name Ervin; 29 December 1873, Făgăraș – 9 June 1938, Bucharest) was a Romanian poet, philologist, linguist, folklorist, literary historian and critic, chief of a poetry school, university professor ...
was particularly influential for the student, who would compose an evocative obituary for him in 1938.
After taking his degree in Romanian and Romance philology, he worked as a clerk at the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...
and then as a high-school teacher. While teaching at
Târgoviște
Târgoviște (, alternatively spelled ''Tîrgoviște'') is a Municipiu, city and county seat in Dâmbovița County, Romania. It is situated north-west of Bucharest, on the right bank of the Ialomița (river), Ialomița River.
Târgoviște was ...
, Densusianu, who admired his qualities, suggested that Giuglea go to Paris for specialized study. Without a scholarship and lacking his own means, he was about to abandon the idea. However, he was in Paris at the end of 1912, and between 1913 and 1914 lectured on Romanian language and literature at the Sorbonne, in the department created in 1912 for
Mario Roques
Mario Roques (1 July 1875 – 8 March 1961) was a French scholar, professor of history of medieval literature and renowned Romance philologist. He translated and edited '' Le Roman de Renart''.
Biography
Mario Roques was born in Peru where hi ...
. He left France upon the outbreak of World War I; once back home, he volunteered for service in a ''
vânători de munte
The ''vânători de munte'' (, ) are the elite mountain troops of the Romanian Land Forces. They were first established as an independent Army Corps in 1916 during World War I, and became operational in 1917 under ''Corpul de Munte'' designati ...
'' regiment, seeing action upon Romania's entry into the war in 1916. In 1919, following the end of the war and the
union of Transylvania with Romania
The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day (also called ''Unification Day''), celebrated on 1 December, is a Public holidays in Romani ...
,
Sextil Pușcariu
Sextil Iosif Pușcariu (4 January 1877 – 5 May 1948) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian linguist and philologist, also known for his involvement in administrative and party politics. A native of Brașov educated in France ...
invited him to the new
University of Cluj
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, where he chaired the Romance department until retiring. In 1920, he defended his thesis at Cluj with Pușcariu and not, as he had intended, at
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
with Densusianu.
[Anghel, p. 94]
Career at Cluj
Giuglea completed his Romance studies in Italy from 1920 to 1921, with
Matteo Bartoli
Matteo Giulio Bartoli (22 November 1873 – 23 January 1946) was an Italian linguist from Istria (then a part of Austria-Hungary, today part of modern Croatia).
He obtained a doctorate at the University of Vienna, where his adviser was Wilhelm ...
at the
University of Turin
The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...
and
Ernesto Giacomo Parodi at the
University of Florence
The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled.
History
The f ...
. The former initiated him into the principles and methods underpinning the new field of linguistic geography, while the latter deepened his knowledge of Vulgar Latin and Italian dialects. After returning from Italy, he began holding courses and seminars on Romance philology in Cluj, while attending the weekly meetings of Pușcariu's Museum of the Romanian Language circle, where he presented the results of his own research. He was a constant contributor to ''Dacoromania''.
Although he did not actually work on the major project that was ''Atlasul lingvistic român'', he did take part in the meetings were problems related to its composition were debated. One of the most thorny questions revolved around the phonetical transcription of responses to interviews for the atlas; the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
was discarded because it did not encompass all sounds of the Romanian language. After lengthy discussions, Giuglea's proposal was adopted: the normal Romanian orthography would be supplemented by necessary diacritics in order to render faithfully the speech recorded. Thus, the atlas became more readily accessible not only to linguists but also to historians, geographers, and folklorists. In 1930 and 1937, he took study trips to Spain in order to deepen his understanding of Romance philology. For the rest of his life, he remained attracted by the Spanish language and fascinated by its literature. Concerned with the development of Hispanic studies at Cluj, he founded a Spanish lectureship within the Romance philology department, with the position assigned to an academic from Spain.
[Anghel, p. 95]
He was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1936. In 1940, after the
Second Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all of Maramureș and part of Cri ...
assigned
Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania (, ) was the region of the Kingdom of Romania that during World War II, as a consequence of the August 1940 territorial agreement known as the Second Vienna Award, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920-1946), Kingdom ...
to
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
, he withdrew to
Sibiu
Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...
, together with the university and the museum. He returned to Cluj in 1945, continuing as a professor until 1947, when he reached the retirement age.
He was
stripped of Academy membership by the new
communist regime
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...
in 1948.
[ ]Păun Otiman
Păun Ion Otiman (born 28 May 1942) is a Romanian agricultural scientist and economist, University Professor, list of members of the Romanian Academy, member of the Romanian Academy, Romanian Senator and former Rector (academia), Rector of the B ...
"1948–Anul imensei jertfe a Academiei Române"
in ''Academica'', Nr. 4 (31), December 2013, p. 122 However, his scientific activity continued: he took part in sessions of the Museum (which became the Linguistics Institute in 1948), and organized the gathering of toponymic and anthroponymic material, surrounding himself with younger collaborators from Cluj but also
Timișoara
Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...
and
Pitești
Pitești () is a city in Romania, located on the river Argeș (river), Argeș. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated in th ...
. He died in Bucharest in 1967 and, in accordance with his wishes, was buried in Cluj.
Research
Giuglea began publishing in Densusianu's ''Buletinul Societății Filologice'' while still a student, submitting a study of the Săcele speech in 1907 and one on pastoral terminology in 1908. He would continue to focus on the terminology associated with sheepherding for the rest of his career. Also as a student, he participated in a project to collect dialectal texts from around the Romanian-speaking areas. Assigned the
Moldavia
Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...
and
Bukovina
Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...
regions, he published an article on the Bukovina variety of Romanian in 1907. Interested in folklore and
ethnography
Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
from a young age, he and geographer
George Vâlsan
George Vâlsan (January 22, 1885 – August 6, 1935) was a Romanian geographer and writer.
Biography Education and career
Born in Bucharest, he attended primary school in Iași and Craiova, and began high school in Pitești. He completed secondar ...
traveled to Serbia in 1910 and 1911, publishing two works on the
Romanians of Serbia
Romanians in Serbia (; ) are a recognized national minority in Serbia. The total number of self-declared Romanians according to the 2022 census was 23,044, while 21,013 people declared themselves Vlachs; there are differing views among some of ...
. He continued to publish studies of folklore, including one in 1918 about
Bessarabia
Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
.
[Anghel, p. 96]
Nevertheless, his research interests shifted toward a historic and etymological study of the
Romanian lexis
The lexis of the Romanian language (or Daco-Romanian), a Romance language, has changed over the centuries as the language evolved from Vulgar Latin, to Common Romanian, to medieval, modern and contemporary Romanian. A large proportion (about 42% ...
and a determination of the language's relationship to its Romance counterparts. Giuglea's first published foray into this domain was a 1909 work on Latin elements in Romanian, devoting special attention to pastoral and agricultural vocabulary. His study of etymology aimed to support the Daco-Romanian continuity thesis of the
origin of the Romanians
Several theories, in great extent mutually exclusive, address the issue of the origin of the Romanians. The Romanian language descends from the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken in the Roman provinces north of the "Jireček Line" (a proposed notion ...
through linguistic arguments. To this end, he assembled a list of some 400 words of Latin origin found in Romanian but not in the
Aromanian language
The Aromanian language (, , , , , or , , ), also known as Vlach or Macedo-Romanian, is an Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance language, similar to Megleno-Romanian language, Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian an ...
. He continued to emphasize Latinity in the early communist period, when the emphasis was on exaggerating the Slavic influence.
[Anghel, p. 97]
At the same time, he was deeply interested in exploring the pre-Roman
Eastern Romance substratum.
[Anghel, p. 98] However, his attempts to demonstrate Germanic influence from passing Goths and Gepids, as well as old Greek elements, proved less convincing.
[Anghel, p. 98-9] Toponymy was another of his preoccupations. As a Romance scholar, he was interested in lexical and semantic parallels between Romanian and, in particular, the
Iberian Romance languages
The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languages Iberian languages is also used as a more inclusive term for all languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, which in antiquity included the non-Indo-European Iberian language. are ...
.
[Anghel, p. 99] After retiring, he remained in Cluj although his family lived in Bucharest, and despite advancing blindness, published a significant number of articles in his later years.
[Anghel, p. 100]
Notes
References
* Ioana Anghel
"George Giuglea și Muzeul Limbii Române" in ''Dacoromania'', serie nouă, vol. III–IV, 1998–1999, Cluj-Napoca, pp. 93–100
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giuglea, George
1884 births
1967 deaths
Romanian philologists
Romanian folklorists
Romanian ethnographers
Linguists from Romania
Romance philologists
People from Săcele
Romanian Austro-Hungarians
Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Romania
Romanian military personnel of World War I
Andrei Șaguna National College (Brașov) alumni
University of Bucharest alumni
Academic staff of Babeș-Bolyai University
Corresponding members of the Romanian Academy
20th-century linguists
20th-century philologists