Abstract
One of the stages we have made in the process of publishing the German–Romanian grammar of Ioan Piuariu Molnar consisted in identifying the patterns followed by the author. The statement which claims that Molnar’s grammar followed the pattern of Samuel Micu and George Șincai’s grammar, Elementa linguæ daco-romanæ sive valachicæ (Vienna, 1780) is widespread in today’s literature review. We have found that, in case of some grammar chapters, the influence of this model is clearly confirmed. But there are also chapters different from their corresponding ones in Elementa or chapters that emerge only in Molnar’s grammar, not in that one of Micu and Șincai. This is explained by the fact that Molnar also followed the pattern of foreign grammars, which at that time were successful and were widely spread; these are two French grammars written in German with Latin grammatical terminology: the work of J.R. des Pepliers, Nouvelle et parfaite grammaire royale françoise et allemande. Neue und vollständige königliche französische Grammatik, bisher unter dem Nahmen des Herrn der Pepliers vielmals herausgegeben (Leipzig, 1765, M.G. Weidmanns Erben und Reich Printing House), respectively the grammar of Hilmar Curas, Erleichterte und durch lange Erfahrung verbesserte französische Grammatik (Berlin, 1759, Friedrich Nicolai Printing House). In this article we have revealed the chapters of morphology in which the influence of the Pepliers and Curas’ grammars is confirmed. The influence of foreign patterns is reflected in: the structure of the chapters, the used terminology and the German sequence of words; on the latter, we have highlighted where German equivalents for the Romanian words indicated by Molnar are identical with the German equivalents listed in Pepliers’ grammar or that of Curas for the French words.
Highlights
In this article we have revealed the chapters of morphology in which the influence of the Pepliers and Curas’ grammars is confirmed
The “pragmatic attitude” (Niculescu, 1978, p. 59) of the Transylvanian scholars, fully adapted to the political, social, and cultural realities of time, materializes, on the one hand, in writing grammars and dictionaries, which had the role of changing the literary Romanian into a perfect means of communication, phonetically and grammatically by a corresponding lexicon; on the other hand, the Transylvanian Illuminati have the fundamental merit of initiating organized dissemination actions, through their theoretical and practical works, translations and originals, the Western science and culture
A first reason concerns the German sequence of words; in our analysis, we reported those situations where the German equivalents cited by Molnar for the Romanian words are identical to the German equivalent quoted by Pepliers’ grammar or that of Curas’ for the French words
Summary
First and foremost, to his outstanding career as eye doctor of the “The Great Principality of Transylvania”, Ioan Piuariu Molnar (1749, Sadu [Sibiu County] – 1815, Sibiu) is part of the series of the Transylvanian intellectuals involved, starting in the second half of the 18th century during the modernization of the Romanian society, according to the western style. 59) of the Transylvanian scholars, fully adapted to the political, social, and cultural realities of time, materializes, on the one hand, in writing grammars and dictionaries, which had the role of changing the literary Romanian into a perfect means of communication, phonetically and grammatically by a corresponding lexicon; on the other hand, the Transylvanian Illuminati have the fundamental merit of initiating organized dissemination actions, through their theoretical and practical works, translations and originals (from history, philosophy, rhetoric, theology, mathematics, natural sciences, medicine, geography, physics, chemistry, agronomy), the Western science and culture. Ioan Piuariu-Molnar is part of the same limited belief, who as an “agent” (according to Pierre Bourdieu’s doctrine) of several socially determined “fields” stood out both as an author of a German-speaking grammar (Deutsch-Walachische Sprachlehre, Vienna, 1788; Sibiu, 1810; Sibiu, 1823), as well as of a German dictionary (Wörterbüchlein deutsch und wallachisches, Sibiu, 1822) and the first book of rural economics (Economia stupilor, Vienna, 1785; Sibiu, 1808), as editor of a rhetoric
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