Essay - : - First Works on Romanian Lexicography by lucian vasile bagiu

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First Works on Romanian Lexicography
essay [ ]

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by lucian vasile bagiu [lucian v. bagiu]

2007-10-26 | |

A dictionary is to be done with considerable hardship and little attraction and these intellectual efforts are to be met only when a cultural need requires it. When referring to the history of the Romanian culture the appearance of the first so called "dictionaries" constitutes at the same time a sign for the degradation of the Slavonic language. That is the reason why a retrospection of Romanian lexicography starts with the Slavonic-Romanian glosses.
The Bogdan Glosses date from the 16th century and have as a distinct feature the detail that the compared words are not aligned in two parallel columns, in Slavonic and Romanian languages, but, on the edges of a text written in Slavonic Romanian words are glossed. This is how the name of the method came to be known as diglossia, which means that, as a common fact, in a text written in a language is introduced a fragment of a text written in a different language. The phenomenon could have an explanatory nature, as in the epistle where Gheorghe Sincai is denounced for his stand towards Archbishop Bob, here being written in the Romanian language only the curse the scholar directed to the hierarch … Diglossia that is to be met in The Bogdan Glosses is a firm reason for the degradation in the knowledge of the Slavonic language, because the clerk felt the need to gloss with Romanian words the uncommon terms of the foreign language.
The bilingual texts – or, to be more accurate, texts with interspersed writing – are to be considered a similar phenomenon. The Slavonic-Romanian Psalters published by Coresi, also dating from the 16th century, are a favourite instance. In this case the Slavonic text is alternated with the Romanian one, where the latest was not a perfect translation of the Slavonic model. Diglossia is to be met particularly with the religious texts, in these cases the Slavonic language being, still, the official ritual dialect, though it had no meaning anymore to the faithful and even to the priests who were spelling a phonetic ritual as an automatism. (According to Vasile Bogrea the etymon of the Romanian verb "a bodogani" is the Slavonic syntagm "bog dano" that could be translated as "Provide us, Lord". Obviously the Romanian speaker, unfamiliar with the Slavonic dialect, hearing the incomprehensible statement during the ritual, came to his own linguistic conclusion, which is the fact that the priest "bodoganeste", that means to grumble or to mutter in an angry, ill-tempered way, saying something indistinctly.
The first lists of Romanian-Slavonic words are dating from the middle of the 17th century. The oldest document of this kind is dated 1660 and it was copied out by a clerk from Bucharest, whose name was Staicu. In this genuine glossary the list of words is impressive, however the clerk does not do an alphabetical arrangement of the catalogued words. This is why one has to overpass a major difficulty when searching for a specific word. In 1670 the first proper glossary comes out, the words being catalogued in the alphabetical order of the Cyrillic alphabet, the Romanian equivalents being mentioned simultaneously. This points out, once more, the acute crisis in the knowledge of the Slavonic language, there was a customary necessity for an efficient checking of the Slavonic texts used in the church, that were intelligible only with the help of these Slavonic-Romanian so called "dictionaries".
In the middle of the 17th century there was elaborated a Greek-Romanian dictionary, preserved as a manuscript by Oxford University. This work is a paradoxical sign for the reaction against the Greeks in Wallachia during the ruling of Matei Basarab. This reaction was culturally manifested through: a) a revival of Paleoslavonic idiom (between 1638-1640 there were drawn up several Slavonic printed matter); b) the conception and elaboration of the first grammar of Slavonic language world-wide; c) the first translation, in Slavonic dialect, of the book De imitatione Christi made by the scholar Udriste Nasturel.
There has to be mentioned the interest the foreigners had for the Romanian language. The humanists found there was a population that spoke a Romanic idiom. The age of Mihai Viteazu raises European attention on this realm. The first ever printed European dictionary that includes Romanian words also is the deed of a German scholar, Hieronymus Megisser (linguist, historian, polihistor), dates from 1603, it was printed in Fankfurt and is named Lexicon Poligloton (also known as Thesaurus Polyglottus/Dictionarium Multilinguae). The work includes almost everything that was known in the field of the spoken languages on earth at the time. (As an oddity that is not without significance the Wallachian language was considered of Latin origin, whereas the Moldavian was considered a Slavonic language!). Thesaurus Polyglottus contains about forty Romanian equivalents, usually of Latin origin, the etymon being thus pointed out. The same scholar also publishes the prayer Our Father in forty languages, including the Romanian language. Luca Stroici sent, at 1595, to a Polish nobleman the same prayer, written in Romanian language with Latin letters (and not Cyrillic, as it was the usage at the time). All these are examples for the integration of the Romanian language in lexicographical works written in Europe at the time.
There is preserved, at Oxford University, a manuscript dictionary, Lexicon Heptagloton (in seven languages), the Romanian language being the last. The Romanian sequence, which was never published, was elaborated in Constantinople at an unknown date, however in the first part of the 17th century, up to 1628. The initial owner of the manuscript was a Dutchman that was a member of the Dutch Embassy in Constantinople and this mission came to an end in 1628. The work was probably drawn up by Eustratie Logofatul – one of the authors that interpolated in the chronicle written by Grigore Ureche –, because the linguistic resemblances are striking. Moreover, the scholar was an intimate co-worker of the hospodar Barnovski, who was often summoned to Constantinople during those times, where he eventually died. This text is written by a Romanian anyway, as an answer to somebody's request – an unknown party. The rest of the manuscript had already been elaborated. All that Eustratie Logofatul had to do was to add the Romanian equivalents. The other languages of the dictionary are Polish, Latin, Turkish, Persian, Arabic.
At the end of the 17th century there were elaborated, in Transylvania, two lexicographical works, in Latin and Romanian languages: Anonymus Caransebensiensis, its so called "author" being Mihail Halici the father, dating from the time previous to 1670, and Lexicon Marsilianum, dating from about 1700. Count Marsili, the owner of the dictionary, accompanied the victorious Austrian troops in Panonia and in the lower Danube area. He collected various data concerning the local population, among whom he gathered this manuscript, elaborated in the area of Hateg Country or in the east of Banat. The two manuscripts are obviously written by Romanians from Transylvania. As a linguistic oddity, the Latin alphabet is used, yet the Hungarian orthography (with such equivalents: Romanian s = Hungarian sz; ş = s). These details denote the existence of a Romanian community that wanted to integrate into the structure of Transylvanian Autonomous Principality that was ruled by a Calvinist Hungarian prince. (The oldest document written in Romanian language, yet with Hungarian orthography, dates from 1640 and was elaborated in Orastie. We are talking about an ordinary phenomenon of the time, Books of Songs or, to put it differently, Romanian-Calvinistic Psalm Books.

All of these are a sign for the confessional insistence the Hungarian Transylvanian princes exerted on Romanian population and not only. He has discharged two regions out of the jurisdiction of the Roman-Catholic Archiepiscopate of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehervar, late Carlsburg), namely Fagaras Country and Hateg Country, and had included them in the jurisdiction of the Calvinist administrator of the Princely Court). The two mentioned works, Anonymus Caransebensiensis and Lexicon Marsilianum are, beyond doubt, the product of a free autochtonous population doing its best to integrate in the structures of the Principality. (Without any partis-prit, the phenomenon that happened at the time in Hateg and Fagaras reiterated, very similarly, in the 18th century, through Scoala Ardeleana, during the Austrian Empire rule.) So there are to be remembered a Latin-Romanian dictionary and a Romanian-Latin-Hungarian dictionary. The vocabulary of the two glossaries proves that the integration of the Romanian population was not to an elevated level of society, but to an average level of Transylvanian society. The specialists who analyzed and commented these works considered them a particular phenomenon, exceptions or cultural accidents. They are, after all, an ordinary result of this attempt to social integration.
The lexicographical masterpiece of the time is to be considered The Teodor Corbea Dictionary. The author has its origins in Brasov (Kronstadt), the son of a priest who became a teacher due to his second marriage. Both Teodor and David Corbea, his brother, were highly educated, connoisseurs of Latin, Greek, Slavonic and Hungarian languages, feasible students of Kiev Academy. What is striking is the destiny of David Corbea Ceaus, plenipotentiary minister sent by the Wallachian hospodar Constantin Brancoveanu to Russia. There the Romanian seems to have impressed the tzar Petru I so deeply that the ruler of Russia has held David Corbea back to the Royal Court and made him his own ambassador. The tzar took such a high reliance on David Corbea Ceaus that charged him to propose, on his behalf, the crown of Poland to Rakotzy II. In 1708, while returning from this unbelievable mission, David Corbea came to the end of his days within the walls of Viennese citadel.
As far as Teodor Corbea is concerned, he was the Latin language secretary attache to the same Wallachian hospodar. Due to this privileged position, the scribe Teodor Corbea managed to become familiar with Constantin Brancoveanu's secret courier with the Austrians. Teodor Corbea was also involved in the political affairs of the age while he spied upon Constantin Brancoveanu to Cantacuzino's family's advantage. However the Wallachian hospodar did not execute the scribe, but pardoned him, and this is how Teodor Corbea was able to elaborate an impressive Latin-Romanian dictionary, that contains more than thirty seven thousands words, unchallenged masterpiece of those times. At the same time Teodor Corbea conceived a splendid versified/rhymed Psalter and is presumed to be the author of the first part of Anonimul Brancovenesc (Brancoveanu's Anonymous), a historiographical work concerning the events up to 1705, because the author of the late work is aware of intimate facts that could only be known by a person extremly close to the hospodar Constantin Brancoveanu. As an example, while conjuring up the victory of the Ottoman troops upon the Austrians in Transylvania, the anonymous chronicler pays attention to the mood Constantin Brancoveanu had after 1688: "and the hospodar had a great fear the Turks would find the secret papers directed to the Austrian general".
The Teodor Corbea Dictionary is a great cultural novelty, the original vision the author had about the usefulness of a dictionary transformed his manuscript in a noble token of Romanian Humanism. To Teodor Corbea a dictionary was more than an instrument for linguistic equalization, but a cultural deed, his exemplifications being however confined to the 12th century, with minimum exceptions. The leap year, a reform made by the Pope Grigorie and introduced in the Hungarian Kingdom by Matei Corvin (Mathias Rex) is called "Matei's jump/leap" (saritura lui Matei). Before the name Orlando di Iasso (Orlando Iassus in Latin) the Transylvanian scholar wrote down "great singer he was" ("mare cantecaci a fost"). The Teodor Corbea Dictionary is based on another highly famous Latin-Hungarian dictionary, created by Albert Szenci-Molnar. The Romanian author had to do two deeds simultaneously, doing his best to equalize the Hungarian part into Romanian ("pergament "= "parchment" is equalized with "dog skin" = "piele de caine"), up to erroneous readings of Hungarian language.
However it is the first ample display of Latin and Romanian vocabulary. The author creates disconcerting cultural phenomenon, such as: next to "troaca" (= "tub"), taking as a guide the Latin etymon "capisteriu", he mentions the word "capestere"; analogous with this, next to "a musca" (= "to bite"), taking as a guide the Latin etymon "morsicare", he introduces the Romanian word "a mursaca". Teodor Corbea often takes as a guide the Latin suffixes, and Latin language is considered as modeller for the Romanian literary language. Dating the dictionary can be settled somewhere within the temporal limits 1691-1702, because it is mentioned it was made "with the charge of father Mitrofan", who was bishop of Buzau between the above shown years.
The metropolitan bishop Simion Stefan had already introduced, in 1648, the principle of world circulation. Popa Zoba from Vint was militating, at the end of the 17th century, for the usage of the words well-known by those whom the work is directed to, which meant the usage of regionalisms. Teodor Corbea resorts to a third solution, the ideal one: he mentions, before the Latin word, all the regionalisms he knew. As an example, for the Latin "nivea" (= "snow"), there appear three equivalents, "nea", "zăpadă", "omăt" (the last being specific to the north part of Romanian language). Another synonymic succession is "încălţământ" = footwear", "opincă" = "peasant sandal", "ciubotă" = "boot", "bătuşă" (the last being typical to Brasov area, of south-Slavonic origin, maybe taken over by Macedo-Romanians). The Teodor Corbea Dictionary also becomes an instrument for cultural equalization. Seldom the author strives to equalize in an accessible terminology elements of cultural history. As an example for "Caesar" is mentioned "hătnog" (the commander of a troop, of Hungarian origin). For the Roman gods the equivalent he found is "Dumnedzău", whereas the godesses are named "Dumnedzoaie" or "Dumnedzăiţe". These exemplifications settle the frame for Romanian Humanism, they are a mark for the awareness of the Latin origin; the preeminence belongs to the word that is derived from a Latin etymon.
On the other hand, if Rome is to be considered as reduced to the images of Romanian political thinking at the end of the 17th century, there is to see a falsification of the Roman-Greek culture. The Teodor Corbea Dictionary is the linguistic climax of the Romanian Humanism. Lists of Italian-Romanian words have also been created by the High Steward Constantin Cantacuzino. Yet the The Teodor Corbea Dictionary exceeded by far the social and cultural needs of Romanian world. If the bishop Mitrofan, as a ruler of printing works, had considered it necessary, he would have published it.
However the cultural consequences of the elaboration of this dictionary are interesting. It was bought from a descendant of Cantacuzino, in Vienna, for a tremendous amount of money, by the bishop Inochentie Micu Klein (we are talking 300 dollars = "taleri", while the revenue of the Fagaras Bishopric was, at the time, 3000 dollars). Once in Blaj, The Teodor Corbea Dictionary was used by Samuil Micu in a first stage of the drawing-up of his own Latin-Romanian dictionary. The initial pages have been abandoned by Samuil Micu and he elaborated another work. On the other hand there has to be mentioned the dictionary of Ioan Bob – bishop of Blaj – that appeared in Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg) in 1821-1822. At the same time, under the patronage of the bishop of Oradea, Samuil Vulcan, the elaboration of The Lexicon from Buda came close to the end. It was finally published in 1825. Ion Bob hastened and published his "own" dictionary in 1821, in Cluj-Napoca, a work that benefited from a marketing licence in Transylvania, a licence that banned the commercialization of the other dictionary. This licence is a clear mark that Ioan Bob wanted to limit the cultural accomplishment of the Lexicon sponsored by Samuil Vulcan. The essential issue is who created, after all, the dictionary so-called "of Ion Bob". The work is, for about 90%, the reversal of The Teodor Corbea Dictionary.
Therefore, though it was not published in 1700, The Teodor Corbea Dictionary had a special posterity within the Romanian culture. A last argument to this posterity could be made up through a comparison between Anonimul Brancovenesc (Brancoveanu's Anonymous), The Teodor Corbea Dictionary and that of Samuil Micu. Thus, the word "pesmed" (= "biscuit", "bread crumbs") appears in all three works, as it is the case with "palivan" ("pehlivan", the one who walks on a rope).

Lucian Bâgiu
November 2006, Lille, Western Europe

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