An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Sruth > Volume 2 > No. 94, 29 October 1970

SIX
SRUTH, Di-ardaoin, 29mh latha de'n Damhar 1970
THE PROBLEM OF LANGUAGE REVIVAL
Linguistic Struggles by P. Berresford Ellis and Seumas Mac a’Ghobhainn
‘ “THE most amazing characteristic of the Rumanian people is that
-*■ they have been able to maintain their language and culture
throughout centuries in spite of war and servitude/’ Such is the
comment iof J. S. Roucek in his book "Contemporary Rumania and
Her Problems" 11932). Indeed, the history of Rumania is a history
of a people divided for centuries by one imperialist conqueror after
another, split by one alien culture after another one.
Yet today there are 16 million Rumanian speakers in the
Republic of Rumania and in the Soviet Socialist Republic of
Moldavia, with pockets of speakers in the Ukraine, Albania,
Macedonia and in the Meglena valley, north west of Salonika,
Greece.
Rumanian is a Latin language, related to French. Spanish and
Italian, but it has undergone so much Slavonic influence as to be
generally unrecognizable to western Europeans as a Romance
language.
Because of the disunity of the Rumanian peoples, varying
dialects of the language were produced. Daco-Rumanian is spoken
in the north, Valakian (which is the basis of the literarl language).
RUMANIA
Moldavian and Transylvanian. Macedo-Rumanian is spoken in
Albania, Thessy and Macedonia; Megleno-Rumanian is spoken in
the Meglena valley, and, lastly, Istro-Rumanian is spoken at
Istria, south east of Trieste.
One hundred and fifty years ago the idea that the small
pockets of Rumanian speaking, illiterate peasants, would survive
as linguistic communities, far less achieve an independent, united
state with a high standard of literacy, was inconceivable to all but
a few people. But the inconcievable became a reality because of
the dedication of the Rumanian peoples who, despite over a
thousand years of foreign domination, never surrendered their
dream of freedom.
The Rumanians claim to be direct descendents of the old
Roman colony of Dacia (circa 102 A.D.). The oolony successfully
repelled invasions of the “barbarian” tribes from the 3rd to 7th
centuries. From the 9th to 12th centuries the Magyars (Hungarian
speakers) began to settle in the higher Danube plains and in
1100 A.D. they asseried their authority over the Rumanian speaking
Transylvania area. Shortly afterwards. Szeklers, Flemish, German
and Saxon speakers began to colonise the area.
By the 13th century the Rumanians had established two
independent principalities — Wallachia and Moldavia. Moldavia
became the first independent Rumanian speaking statelet in 1250 A.D.
under a ruler named Bogdan. Poles, Magyars and Turks were
soon plundering Moldavia. Wallachia was conquered by the Turks
in 1411. All the Rumanian people now lay under foreign suzerainty
and were to remain so until 1877.
Rumanian culture did not follow in the wake of Rumanian
political decay, however. The first printing press was established ia
the latter 16th Century and there was some fertile religious activity,
particularly in Transylvania, where Catholic books in Rumanian
were produced. Protestants also tried to win over the peasants by
publishing religious books in, the language.
An attempt was made to free the Rumanians by Mihaiu the
Brave (1593-1601) who succeeded in uniting the Rumanian princi¬
palities of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania. This left only
the principalities of Bessarabia and Bukovina under foreign rule.
However, the Turks were soon back in force. At first they had been
The folk dance ensemble and orchestra of the Students’ House
of Culture in Bucharest
content to let the Rumanians keep their own religion, laws, language
and institutions. Magyar and Saxon overlords, however, ruled the
country for the conquerors, keeping the Rumanians in strict feudal
subjection. Insurrections in 1382, 1437 and 1514 only brought down
stricter penal laws.
With the overthrow of Mihaiu, the Turks decided to appoint
their own rulers. They farmed out administrative posts to rich
Greek bankers who had to pay vast sums to obtain their positions.
This was called the “Phanariotes period” because the Greeks came
from Phanar, the lighthouse quarter of Constantinople (Istanbul)
and lasted from. 1711 to 1821. Their influence was confined to
Wallachia and Moldavia. In these provinces Greek culture and
language began to replace Rumanian. The Rumanian literary move¬
ment, which had started in the 16th century, died . . . only a few
writers wrote of the sad events of their time but in a language
which did not reach their predecessors’ high standards.
The Rumanian provinces were in an extremely strategic part
of the world and Austria and Russia long had territorial ambitions
in the area. Austria’s ambition was to annex all of Rumania. The
opportunity came during the Russo-Turkish War of 1758-1764 which
was resolved by the Treaty of Kutshuk-Kainardji. This treaty gave
Turkey sovereignity over Wallachia and Moldavia. Austria took
possession of Bukovina and Transylvania while Russia assumed
overlordship of the rest. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-12
Russia took possesion of the eastern half of Moldavia.
At first the Russians gave the Rumanians, under their rule,
a high degree of autonomy but this was abolished in 1828.
Transylvania became the centre of Rumanian nationalism. The
position of the language was now extremely precarious. Few books
were available in the language and few people were literate. The
main Rumanian speaking population were the peasants, in
Transylvania, the Magyar and German languages were the pre¬
dominant languages, while in Wallachia and Moldavia. Greek and
French were the predominate languages.
French had been introduced by the Russians who militarily
occupied the area in 1828. French culture was popular in Russia
as a language of the “upper classes” and this was the language
which the Russian officials used as the “official state language.”
The Transylvanian Rumanians began to shoulder the burden
of the fight for cultural and political independence. An uprising
was bloodily suppressed at the end of the 18th century. In 1791
a memorandum of Rumanian wrongs (Supplex Libellus Valachorum)
was sent to the Austrian ruler loseph II. This document pointed
out that the Rumanians were the oldest inhabitains of Transylvania.
They demanded Rumanian officials be appointed in Rumanian
districts, and that the Rumanian language be used in Rumanian
districts, and concurrently in other districts. They also wanted a
Rumanian assembly. Needless to say the memorandum was rejected
in to to.
The Transylvanian Rumanians started the Linguistic and
Cultural Revival at the start of the 19th century. Leading this
revival was Samuel Michu, Gheorghe Sincai and Petru Maior whose
works in Rumanian earnt them the title as “national awakeners.”
Professor H. M. Stephen, of the University of California, calls
Aspect of a handicraft shop in Bucharest
the Rumanian national movement “one of the most remarkable
facts in modern European history.” The Rumanian Cultural Revival
began to have repercussions in the other Rumanian districts, par¬
ticularly in Bukovina where certain Austrian and Hungarian aris¬
tocracy began to Rumanise themselves.
The language, now being backed with a thriving literature,
began to be adopted by the middle and upper classes. It was no
longer the illiterate peasant dialect that people had considered it.
Many of the leaders of the Cultural Revival settled in Moldavia
and Wallachia with the express purpose of awakening these branches
of the nation dominated by Greek culture.
Gheorge Lazar settled in Bucharest in 1816 and founded the
first Rumanian language school. At first the people ridiculed Lazar's
attempts to teach the Rumanians their own language but years of
patient effort were finally rewarded. More and more language schools
were established with teachers imported from Transylvania.
The Cultural Revival also invigorated the independence move¬
ment and Tudor Vladimirescu, in 1821, raised a national people's
army, consisting of ill armed peasants. Vladimirescu joined forces
with a Greek insurrectionist, Alexandru Ypsilanti. The two forces
planned to overthrow Turkish rule in Rumania and in Greece but
their effort was doomed to failure.
National sentiment among the divided Rumanians was
quickening. In 1829 the revolutionist Ion Eliade Radulescu founded
the first Rumanian language newspaper. In 1833 the Societate
Filarmonica was organised combining cultural aspirations of the
awakening Rumania with political ambitions. The young Rumanian
nationalists began to see the evils of being a divided people and
aimed at unity and independence.
Austria, Russia and Turkey were not unaware of the connection
between the Rumanian cultural movements and the political move¬
ments. They retaliated by the destruction of Rumanian schools
and the two seats of higher learning at Iasi and Bucharest.
The various governments would not give grants of money to
any schools teaching Rumanian while large sums of money were
given to schools teaching German, Russian and Greek.
Despite this there was a general insurrection throughout the
Rumanian territories in 1848. This was led by the Rumanian poet
Vasile Alexandri. The insurrection was broken by the Russians in
Moldavia, by Russo-Turkish forces in Wallachia, and in Bucharest,
where the “Provisional Revolutionary Government” had been
proclaimed, Turkish troops crushed the Rumanians. These areas
were under joint military occupation until 1851 and sole Russian
occupation until 1854.
*■ (Continued on page 8)
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