Name of Romania
The Romanian term România (Romania ) comes from Romanian Român ( Romanian ), which in turn is a continuation of the Latin Romanus ( Latin, Roman).
Etymology of the ethnonym " Romanian " ( " italiano " )
During the transition from Vulgar Latin to Romanian between the 4th and 8th centuries, a series of phonetic developments of " Romanus " to " italiano " have been used:
- The omission of the final consonant -s ( joint development in some Romance languages)
- The elimination of the final vowel - u (specific for the Romanian; Altrumänischen consists in the-u ending in a weakened form )
- "A" → " â" (specific for the Romanian for "a" before nasal consonants )
- "O " → " u" (specific development )
A written notice to the term " Romanian " might contain the Nibelungenlied: " The Dukes Ramunch vzer Vlachs lant / with Sibenhunduert mannen chom he fvr si gerant / sam the wild Vogele one saw si varn ". It is argued that " Ramunch, the prince of the Walachenland ", suggesting the popular name Român.
The oldest known documents that attest to the term " Romanian ", derived from reports of Italian humanists, most of which were sent by the Pope on reconnaissance trip through Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia in the 16th century. So Tranquillo Andronico writes in 1534 that Romanians ( " Valachi " ) " themselves Romans call ". While he accompanied the Governor Aloisio Gritti through Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia, Francesco della Valle noted in 1532 that Romanians " themselves as Romans in their language call ". He even quotes a Romanian sentence: " Sti rominest " ( "You can romanian? " Rum " STII româneşte "). After a trip to Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia Ferrante Capeci reported around 1575, that the inhabitants of these provinces themselves Romanians call themselves ( " romanesci "). Pierre Lescalopier writes in 1574 that all those who live in Moldova, Wallachia and most parts of Transylvania, " is true descendants of the Romans and their language " roman real ", ie Roman " call.
For more information about the own popular name of the Romanians provide scholars who have come into direct contact with them. So the Transylvanian humanist Johann Lebel reported in 1542 that "the Romanians " Romuini " call themselves " while the Polish historian Orichovius ( Stanislaw Orzechowski ) 1554 writes that the Romanians "in their language Romini by the Romans, in our language ( Polish) Vlachs, after the Italians called ". The Hungarian primacy and diplomat Anton Verancsics writes in 1570 that "the Romanians call themselves Romans " and the Transylvanian Hungarian Szent- Ivany Martinus cited in the 1699 Romanian phrases like: " You noi sentem Rumeni " ( " we are Romanians " rum: " Şi noi suntem Români ") and " Noi sentem di sange Rumena " ("we are Romanian blood ," rum " Noi suntem Sange de italiano ").
Romanian writers of the 17th and 18th centuries such as Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin, Constantin Cantacuzino, or Dimitrie Cantemir go in detail on their popular name of the Romanians ( " italiano " ), to their origins as well as to the difference between the foreign ( Wallachian ) and the self- designation ( Romanian ) in the historiography.
Historical documents show two spellings for " Romanian " on " italiano " and " Ruman ". For several centuries, both spellings are used indiscriminately, sometimes within the same sentence.
The ethno- linguistic designation " Ruman / italiano " possessed in the Middle Ages, the meaning of " common people ". During the 17th century, when serfdom spread en masse, which is " common people " to more and more " serf ", so that through a process of semantic differentiation, the predominant speech form " Ruman " meaning " serf " wins, while the speech form " italiano " their ethno- linguistic meaning reserves. After the abolition of serfdom by Prince Constantin Mavrocordat around 1746 is of the form " Ruman " gradually lost from the language and " italiano " the speech form stabilized definitely after 1830.
Etymology of the country name "Romania " ( " România " )
The first evidence for a place name with the words " Romanian" contains a manuscript of Getica work: " ... Sclavini a civitate nova et Sclavino Rumunense et qui lacu appellantur Mursianus ... ". The place name Sclavino Rumunense is a later, made the High Middle Ages interpolation in Jordan 's text.
The best-known document with the Romanian country name Wallachia is a letter of the merchant Neacşu to the mayor of Braşov (Kronstadt) from the year 1521 In this text, the body designated by strangers as the Principality of Wallachia country is in Romanian " Romanian Land" ( orig.. : Tera Rumăneasca ) called.
In the 17th century chronicler Miron Costin, the Romanian principalities of Wallachia called strongly and Moldova, as well as living in Transylvania Romanians and Romanian.
In his "History of the Romanian state " (History of Wallachia ) ( written around 1690 ) explains Constantin Cantacuzino the origins of the name " Romanian" for Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia.
In the 18th century, the scholar and prince Dimitrie Cantemir referred systematically the three inhabited by Romanians principalities as " Romanian Land".
In its modern meaning of the term "Romania " attests to the early 19th century.
The genesis of the term "Romania " ( România ) does not follow the rule of word building for country names in Romanian, after which the respective ethnonym the suffix -ia is added while maintaining the accent, as in: " grec " → " Grecia ", " bulgar " → "Bulgaria", " rus →" Rusia ", etc. As a self- designation, the term was " România "from the ethnonym " italiano " and the suffix - ie and pointed to a derived state, as in: " MOS → Mosie " " domn " → " domnie " (Mr → rule ) " Boii " → " boierie ". Originally likes the term " Romanie " actually, as it means " Rumänenschaft ". Before the term România got his modern nation -related importance, he had a limited and local importance as a social and ethno- linguistic designation.