Culture Archive Arhive - romanianlanguage.org

HUNGARIANS DO WANT TO REWRITE HISTORY

By Mihai Vinereanu| 2024-03-21T22:44:57+00:00 21 March 2024|

In the 19th century, a Hungarian baron Jόsef Kemény concocted an inscription, in a ‘Proto-Hungarian’ dialect, which was said to have been written on a statuette representing a winged sphinx, but no one saw it, because there was no such thing ever, being rendered only as a black-and-white drawing. The statuette would have been ‘discovered’ in Potaissa (present day Turda, Romania), dating from the 3rd century AD, during the last years of Roman occupation of Dacia. As early as the 19th century, a number of researchers already proved it to be a fake. However, the idea has recently been revived, so that at the end of December 2023 an article appeared in an English-language journal signed, this time, by a Hungarian professor settled in the USA. His name is Peter Z. Revesz, a professor at Nebraska University. Our professor ‘deciphers’ the inscription in question. On his part, the author of the present article gathers all the data available to him and proves that the effort of the American researcher was in vain.

ACHILLES’ ETHNIC ORIGIN

By Mihai Vinereanu| 2023-06-21T08:56:51+00:00 21 June 2023|

Most ancient Greek proper names either names of gods, humans or animals as well as toponyms and hydronyms cannot be explained by Greek language, but by other Indo-European language which is the Pelasgian language being in the same time the substrate language of Greek. Robert Beekes, the author of the most recent Greek Etymological Dictionary shows that almost half of ancient Greek words are loanwords from the substrate language, but he does not say what language was it, although is obvious that it is a centum Indo-European language, quite different form Greek. I mention that the author of these lines identified hundreds of words in Greek which have close cognates in modern Romanian which is the real descendent of Pelasgian language. Briefly, the Greek substrate language was no other than Pelasgian, an older form of Illyro-Thraco-Dacian. In this article, the author shows that the personal name Achilles along with a few other names cannot be explained form Greek perspective, but from a Pelasgian one.

Review of the Book “Cultural Hybridization in the Contemporary Novel” by Diana-Eugenia Panait-Ioncică

By Mihai Vinereanu| 2021-06-25T13:28:08+00:00 25 June 2021|

The book Cultural Hybridization in the Contemporary Novel is concerned with the issue of cultural hybridization, deemed by the author to be a key concept for defining the world in which we live. The author thinks cultural hybridization cannot be confined to the narrow approach taken by postcolonialism; she extends its significance and sees it as one of the pivotal concepts in contemporary English language literature. The idea at the core of the book is that of plural cultural identities, which combine a multitude of cultural elements. The authors analyzed in the book are Michael Ondaatje, Kazuo Ishiguro and Salman Rushdie. The identities that are shaped by the three authors’ relations to their culture of origin are hybrid identities, which cannot be termed as purely Oriental or Occidental, but are to be found between cultures and nationalities, being mixtures of the above.

From Language to Cultural Heritage

By Ana Radu Chelariu| 2017-03-20T07:26:16+00:00 15 December 2015|

Many researchers agree that “myth… is the counterpart of ritual; myth implies ritual, ritual implies myth, they are one and the same.” (E. R. Leach 1954: 13-14), while others may not agree that myth derives from ritual or the other way around, but are essentially connected. G. Kirk recommends cautiousness when associating myth and ritual as their “relations are complex and varied…” but if mythical and folkloric material cooperate the story, rite-myth gets validation. (Kirk 1970:16-17) Earlier, V. Propp (1957) extended the field maintaining that fairy tales are the text that accompanied rituals.

My integration

By Elana Andrews| 2017-03-20T07:26:13+00:00 16 June 2015|

There seems to be a general consensus amongst the population that Romania is not good enough, that it is better to live in other places and that it will never catch up to the rest of Europe. I find it very sad to hear this view so often and it seems almost impossible to change it. I wish that the Romanian population could see in their country what I do – a stunning natural environment where, with hard work and perseverance anything is possible, just like in the rest of the world. I was born and grew up in Australia and my family are all still there, but I never felt connected to the land and its history or community. I had to travel over 15000 kilometres to find my place – Romania.

Woman as a nation’s symbol: the Romanian case

By Georgeta Fodor| 2017-03-20T07:26:06+00:00 15 March 2015|

Out of all the definitions scholars gave to the concept of a modern nation the one that best fits our approach refers to the nation as a “virtual community”. We understand “nation” as a mental construct based on a set of symbols. The present study will make reference to one of these icons, which is the female embodiment of a nation. The subject of our analysis is Romanian society during the XIXth Century. There are two objectives to be pursued: the first is to reveal the historical context in which Romanian artists felt the need to represent the nation in a woman’s body and, secondly, to see if this new national perspective in regard to women was a consequence of the changes registered in the general perception of women’s place and role in Romanian society.

The Most Prevalent Feminine Mythical Characters in Romanian Folklore

By Ana Radu Chelariu| 2017-03-20T07:26:09+00:00 15 March 2015|

The powerful mythical figure of Neolithic, the Great Goddess, survived in the Indo-European pantheon, with characteristics surfacing in almost all the feminine divinities of the classical mythologies. In the Romanian folklore one can recognize this pre-historic goddess in the character of Ileana Simziana, the most adorned fairy of the land. She is the heroine of numerous songs, carols, and fairy tales; the most beautiful of all fairies, their queen, so beautiful that ‘one could look at the sun but not at her’. Other feminine characters in Romanian folklore are the fairies, zâne, beautiful and kind, helping people. They are opposed by Iele (3rd plural personal pronoun iele) ‘they’, fairies that could turn very aggressive towards mankind; perhaps some of the demonic and chimerical depictions of the Neolithic Goddess, her relationship with death and destruction, have transpired into the characteristics of this group of fairies with negative powers.

Landmarks of the Style in the Romanian Psaltic Music in the XIXth Century. A Case Study

By Constanța Cristescu| 2017-03-20T07:26:20+00:00 26 August 2014|

The musicological byzantine literature of the nineteenth century is full of creative personalities who, revaluating the structures canonically established through the Chrisantic reform, became visible in the world of Psalter through the creative refinement and the special capacity of infinite variation of the rhetorical models adopted by the Orthodox Church.

Clay Toys

By Corina Firuță| 2017-03-20T07:26:24+00:00 26 August 2014|

The study of children’s games and toys by the Romanian researchers gained momentum in the second half of the 19th century with the studies of Petre Ispirescu and Alexandru Lambrior, followed by George Ion Pitio, Ion Muolea, Ovidiu Bârlea and Narcisa atiucã. They pleaded with convincing arguments for the idea that the game and toys are a materialization of the surrounding reality. In their games, children draw on everything that surrounds them; they copy their parents’ life and build “a miniature universe” of their own after the model of the adults’ world.