Modern Romanian

Modern Romanian ( ro, română modernă) is the historical stage of the Romanian language starting from the end of the 18th century until today. In general, it is agreed that the Modern epoch comprises three distinct periods: the Premodern period starting from 1780 and lasting until 1830, the Modern period from 1830 until 1880, and the Contemporary period after 1881. Some researchers place the end of this last category roughly after the Second World War and the " Socialist Period", thus separating the current state of the Romanian language as a different epoch. Modern Romanian is characterized by the development of the Romanian alphabet and modern system of writing, initial Latin and Italian lexical items entries followed by the central role of French in the development of the Romanian lexis, the development of literary styles, and standardization of the language.

The history of the language during this stage is mirrored by or intertwined with the development of Romanian literature, the influence of great writers often cited along with the efforts of institutions, mainly Romanian Academy.Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela
''The Grammar of Romanian''
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-964492-6, page 4

Premodern period

Starting from the 16th century, the Romanian language is attested in its literary form. The early books and texts, written with Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, were predominantly religious or historical. Notable personalities such as Ion Neculce, Miron Costin, Dimitrie Cantemir, and Constantin Cantacuzino, under the influence of Humanism, promoted the use of Romanian instead of the regular literary language, Old Church Slavonic. The Church language however continued its influence in the field of religious writings, but writers such Archbishops Vaarlam and Dosoftei were reserved in introducing the needed neologism from it. The first influences on the modern lexicon would come mostly from Latin, Greek, and Turkish, with an estimate of 850 new words coming from Modern Greek during this period.

The alphabet came under scrutiny initially in Transylvania, where the main writing system was the Hungarian alphabet. The scholars of the Transylvanian School, educated in Catholic centers at Rome or Vienna, developed a writing system based on the Latin alphabet. These efforts were supported by a rich publishing activity, out of which the book Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae, written by Gheorghe Șincai and Samuil Micu-Klein gained subsequent recognition as the delineating event. However, the evident diatopic, diastratic, and diametric differences of the written language, meant the development into what is considered Modern Romanian was not immediate.

The latter part of the Phanariote epoch

Between 1711–1716 and 1821, a number of Phanariots were appointed Hospodars (voivodes or princes) in the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia); the period is known as the Phanariote epoch in Romanian history. The Greek dignitaries and their retinue brought with them significant Greek influence, mainly replacing the status of Old Church Slavonic and Romanian as literary languages. However, the growing influence of French as the prestige language that was felt at the conversational level in this educated environment opened the access to the West for Romanian. In this context early writers such as Ienăchiță Văcărescu, Dinicu Golescu, Costache Conachi developed a style characteristic of both influences. Translations from Western writers, for example Vasile Pogor's translation of Voltaire's La Henriade, became more frequent with this generation.

Transylvanian School

The main contribution to the beginning of the Modern Romanian were undertaken by the Transylvanian School, a current developed within the Romanian Greek Catholic Church community from the Hapsburg territory. "The Coryphaei" of this cultural movement, Micu-Klein, Gheorghe Șincai, Petru Maior and Ion Budai-Deleanu, took up the cause of representing the Romanian political rights, and appealed to the Latin origin of the people and language as the main argument. Within this context they devised the early Romanian alphabet based on the Latin and mainly on etymologizing (Latinizing) principles. A sample of text from Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae compared to a Latin version, showing the etymologizing features:

The influence of their writings expanded to the Romanian principalities, with the work of teachers like Aaron Florian continuing the activity of another Romanian from Transylvania, Gheorghe Lazăr, spreading further to preeminent cultural personalities of the early 19th century like Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Nicolae Bălcescu.

Establishment as literary language

The first decades of the 19th century brought the romantic enthusiasm to Romanian culture. The period saw the rise and end of the Filiki Eteria in the Danubian Principalities and with this event the end of the Greek language branch of the Princely Academy of Bucharest that became Saint Sava Academy, the institution where Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Eufrosin Poteca promoted the usage of Romanian language. Rădulescu, an adept of introducing neologisms into the language, especially from Italian which he saw as a more modern cultural model than the Latin model designed by the Transylvanian School, managed to break the monopoly on public press held by the authorities and published in 1829 Curierul Românesc with contributions from Heliade himself, Grigore Alexandrescu, Costache Negruzzi, Dimitrie Bolintineanu, Ioan Catina, Vasile Cârlova, and Iancu Văcărescu. A sample of text showcasing the etymologizing writing used by Rădulescu:

In Moldavia a similar endeavour was taken by Gheorghe Asachi, a friendly figure of the Transylvanian School, an opponent of the Phanariote regime, and an admirer of Petrarch and Moldavian chroniclers. Asachi oscillated between returning to the archaic language of the religious writings which he saw as a solution to the confusing tendencies of modernising, and the standardisation of the language including the addition of neologisms by a single responsible institution. His political orientation towards Russia allowed him to be involved in the creation of the Moldavian Regulamentul Organic, a constitutional like set of laws during Russian protectorate, and the publishing of Romanian language magazine Albina Românească, the first of its kind in Moldavia. Asachi went on to publish the supplements ''Alăuta Românească'' (1837–1838) and ''Foaea Sătească a Prințipatului Moldovei'' (1839).

Modern period

With the end of the Phanariote epoch, the adoption of Regulamentul Organic, and most importantly the establishment of Romanian as the main literary language of Wallachia and Moldavia ends the transitional period and starts the Modern period that will partly overlap with the Golden Age of Romanian literature. The back seating of the Old Church Slavonic and the Church language, the reorientation towards other languages as cultural model with the effect of losing hundreds of words from Modern Greek (of which only about 10% remained in usage from the 19th century onward, according to linguist László Gáldi) and Turkish, the use of the Romanian transitional alphabet and the advent of French as the major language of influence during and after what is called the Pașoptist generation (so much so that in the semantic field of Modern world, one of the richest in loanwords - over 70%, more than half of them are from French) are the cumulative effects of the patchy process known as Re-Romanization, Re-Latinization, or Westernization of Romanian language.

Major historical events such as the 1848 Revolutions, the Crimean War, the Unification of Moldavia and Wallachia, and the Romanian War of Independence created favorable conditions for the adoption of the Romanian alphabet, the founding of universities in Iași (1860) and Bucharest (1864), and the establishment of the Romanian Academic Society in 1866 that will later be renamed Romanian Academy.

The Pașoptist generation

File:Nicolae Bălcescu.jpg, Nicolae Bălcescu
File:Mihail Kogălniceanu.jpg, Mihail Kogălniceanu
File:Constantin Daniel Stahi - Portretul lui Vasile Alecsandri.jpg, Vasile Alecsandri
File:Timotei Cipariu (1).jpg, Timotei Cipariu
File:Grigore Alexandrescu - Foto02.jpg, Grigore Alexandrescu
File:Alecu Russo - Foto01.JPG, Alecu Russo
File:Dimitrie Bolintineanu - Foto01.jpg, Dimitrie Bolintineanu
File:C. A. Rosetti si Maria Rosetti in exil.jpg, C. A. Rosetti and Maria Rosetti
File:George Bariț.jpg, George Bariț
File:Theodor Aman - Cezar Bolliac.jpg, Cezar Bolliac
File:Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian.jpg, Alexandru Papiu-Ilarian
File:Andrei Saguna.jpg, Andrei Șaguna

Although the modernising current was initially led by the aristocratic and educated personalities of the Danubian Principalities, the profound changes of the early 19th century allowed the middle-class, the bourgeoisie, to participate more actively in the cultural life. Educated at the schools and colleges of the older generation (Heliade's Saint Sava Academy or Asachi's Academia Mihăileană), they will embrace the period's growing influence of French language and culture. This will supersede the previous cultural models of Latin and Italian in the spoken language. The leaders of this generation will be active during the 1848 Revolutions in Wallachia and Moldavia as well as being involved in the events across the Carpathian range, in the Hapsburg Empire. As for what the history of the language is concerned, the levelling effect of the French language in terms of lexical borrowing and the literary activities of personalities involved in the political life of all areas inhabited by Romanians will bring the first signs of language standardisation.

One of the first to take up the new ideas of the French Revolution and Romantic Nationalism was Nicolae Bălcescu, a former student of Aaron Florian and Ion Heliade Rădulescu, and a leading member of the French-based association of Romanian students from both Principalities presided by Alphonse de Lamartine. His main publishing activity was in collaboration with August Treboniu Laurian at ''Magazin istoric pentru Dacia''. However, his impact came from his political activities and the posthumously published of ''Românii sub Mihai Vodă Viteazul'' in 1860 by Alexandru Odobescu, both imbued with a vision of unity of all Romanians and implicitly the Romanian language.

A more pragmatic politician, Mihail Kogălniceanu, started his literary activity in ''Alăuta Românească'', the supplement to the Moldavian magazine Albina Românească. He initiated in 1840 the first literary magazine, Dacia Literară, then ''Propășirea'' later renamed ''Foaie Științifică și Literară''. Kogălniceanu's role in combating nationalist excesses, in particular the post-1840 attempts by Transylvanian and Wallachian intellectuals to change the fabric of the Romanian language by introducing strong influences from Latin or other modern Romance languages was recognised by Garabet Ibrăileanu.

Vasile Alecsandri, one of the most prolific writers of his generation, had the merit of looking into the folkloric material and adapting it into his work through a romantic perspective. His literary style, difficult to pin down to one of the cultural currents of his century, influenced generations after, including the late 19th century poet Mihai Eminescu. Like Kogălniceanu, he was less receptive to the previous generation's proposals of modernising the language, looking to adopt features of the Wallachian style into his own- a process initiated by Constantin Negruzzi before him, which by mid-century had an effect on Wallachian scholars who reciprocated the gesture.

The Pașoptist current had its critics, although limited in number and quality. The Bonjuriști (from French ''bonjour'') were opposed by what Călinescu called the Antibonjuriști.

The Transitional Alphabet

The Romanian Transitional Alphabet also known as the ''civil alphabet '' was used between 1828 and 1859. The idea belonged to Ion Heliade Rădulescu who made it public in his 1828 ''Gramatica românească''. The old Cyrillic alphabet had 43 letters and, as scholars like Ienăchiță Văcărescu before him noticed, not all had a clear use in Romanian. Rădulescu proposed a list of 29 letters: А, Б, В, Д, Г, Ԑ, Ж, Є, Ӡ, Ї, К, Л, М, И, О, П, Р, С, Т, Ѹ, Ф, Ц, Х, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Џ, Ѱ, Ѵ, which he identified during his pedagogic activity as the more useful for his students. However, even in his own publication ''Curierul românesc'' from 1829 and 1830 many of the letters rejected by Rădulescu reappeared. The difficulty of putting in practice the transitional alphabet would last a few more years until in the same magazine, in 1835, the letters Î,R,S and z replaced their Cyrillic equivalents. Another attempt 4 years later added hybrid letters combining Latin and Cyrillic features. In 1844 the editors decided to publish ''Curierul de ambe sexe'' with Latin characters only.

Elsewhere, in 1840 the first page of Iordache Golescu's ''Băgări de seamă asupra canoanelor gramăticești '' had no less than 4 alphabets represented, and within the text the Cyrillic and Latin letters alternated. Kogălniceanu's Dacia literară and ''Propășirea'' had a moderate transitional alphabet, using the Latin d,e,m,n,z. Only in 1855 România literară the letters î,j,s,t will be added. The Transylvanian ''Foaie pentru minte,inimă și literatură'' and ''Gazeta de Transilvania'', edited by Bariț and Cipariu, would have the first page printed with Latin letters, then the following in transitional alphabet, sometimes even alternating from Latin to Cyrillic from one page to another. In 1856 in Wallachia a law decreed the use of the Latin alphabet for schools and manuals, but oddly retained the letter Ъ in the new system. Finally, in 8 February 1860, Ion Ghica decreed the use of the Latin alphabet in Wallachia, a model followed two years later by Moldavia.

Founding of the advanced education institutions

The earliest schools teaching in Romanian have their roots in the Princely Academies of Wallachia and Moldavia where the Greek language teaching branch was seconded by a Romanian language one. After the end of the Phanariote epoch the Romanian language branch remained the only one in use. Although named "academies", the two institutions - Saint Sava Academy in Bucharest and Academia Mihăileană from Iași - they offered only college level education. Those looking for higher education had to study abroad, mainly in France where hundreds of the so-called Pașoptist generation intellectuals did, or in major university centres of Central Europe such as Vienna or Kraków, closer to home. With the Unification of Wallachia and Moldavia and the introduction of the Latin-based alphabet the stage was set for the establishment of advanced education. From the two academies, by decree of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the University of Iași was founded in 26 October 1860 and the University of Bucharest in 4 July 1864. in Transylvania the first university was founded in 1872, called Hungarian Royal Franz-Joseph University, but due to Magyarization policies Romanian was not included as a language of education. However, a chair for Romanian language and literature was permited. The structure and model of the Romanian language institutions was inspired or implemented on a French system. Several Romanian language schools are established in Macedonia to support the use of the language.

Romanian Academy

A few years after the introduction of advanced educational institutions, the ''Societatea Academică Română'' was established. Several scholars are credited with the idea or the continuous support for the creation of the single forum among them Gheorghe Asachi, the leading figure of early Moldavian education, and Ion Heliade Rădulescu, a recurring personality in the development of Modern Romanian. The formal proposal was made and fulfilled by C. A. Rosetti, then the minister of Public Instruction, and in 1/13 April 1866 the Societatea Academică Română was created. The institution will be the main stage for the academic debate between etymologizing (Latinizing) and broadly phonemic approaches to standards of writing. Tendencies in writing such as Timotei Cipariu's of noting the letters ă, î, ș, ț with Latin characters without comma or Rădulescu's proposal of writing c (⟨k⟩) as qu, é and ó for ea and oa diphthongs were debated and in 1869 the society decides in favour of Rădulescu's system. Only in 1881 will the Academy decide in favour of the phonemic principle.

The use of Modern Romanian in these institutions, with the literary forms and neologisms, will create an "intellectual style", adapted to the material and cultural reality of its time. Words like ''benign, cotidian, decență, depravare, impecabil, rural, rustic, urban'' took precedence in the higher cultural language before the mundane ''blând, zilnic, cuviință, desfrânare, fără cusur, țărănesc, sătesc, orășenesc'', a tendency that will remain active in the contemporary language.

See also

* Modern English

References

{{Romanian language

Languages attested from the 18th century
18th-century establishments in Romania
Modern history of Romania