Romanian@languagesnet.EUOana Chelaru Murăruș noas@pcnet.ro Andra Vasilescu v_andra@pcnet.ro
I. LANDMARKS II. TYPOLOGY A. Historical perspective B. Present-day situation III. LANGUAGE POLICIES A. Language ecology policies 1. The normative policies of the Romanian Academy and the Romanian Institute of Linguistics “Iorgu Iordan” a) Reforms of the Romanian orthography. Norms of the correct use. Standardization b) Grammars c) Dictionaries d) The Conferences of the Romanian Academy 2. Educational policies a) The Romanian Language in schools and in higher education in Romania b) Romanian minorities worldwide 3. Media and cultural policies
B. Policies for promoting linguistic and cultural diversity 1. Study of the European foreign languages in the Romanian educational system. Media and translations 2. The protection of the linguistic rights of national minorities in Romania 3. Romanian as a foreign language
IV. CONCLUSIONS: Romanian and the EU integration
In a Europe of languages, the chance of Romanian derives from two aspects: first, it is part of the network of Romance languages; second, it shares a great deal of linguistic and cultural features with other European languages. The EU integration language policies of Romania are backed by the intercultural identity which the language itself has acquired in time, due to diverse cultural and linguistic experiences. In a world of discourses, the role of educational systems is to promote the self – alterity dialogue taking language as a mediator.
I. LANDMARKS· Romanian is the most Oriental Romance language (Balkan-Romance group); it developed in isolation from Western Romance languages; it preserved Latin elements lost in other Romance languages; due to its special Latin structure and vocabulary it was metaphorically called “the 4th leg of the Romance table” (Alf Lombard) · Spoken by over 28,500,000 - 29,000,000 speakers: o Mother tongue for approx. 24,900,000 speakers: 20,500,000 speakers in Romania + 2,900,000 speakers in the Republic of Moldavia (officially called the Moldavian language) + 1,500,000 in the countries neighbouring Romania (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine) and communities of immigrants in the U.S.A., Canada, Latin America, Australia, Israel, Turkey and other European and Asian countries. · Romanian has 4 dialects (Daco-Romanian/ Romanian, Aromanian, Istro-Romanian, Megleno-Romanian); the Daco-Romanian/Romanian has 5 subdialects.
II. TYPOLOGY A. Historical perspective Romanian is a Neolatin language, descendant of the vulgar (popular) Latin. The history of the Romanian language reveals a special relationship between conservationism, language loyalty and vitality, a high degree of flexibility in contact with diverse cultures and languages.
This special relationship shaped the intercultural identity of the Romanian language: · Synthetic structure, which interferes with elements of analytism: Romanian has inherited the Latin morpho-syntactic structure; few non-Romance influences in the language structure (-o vocatives, the neuter gender, reflexives, subjunctive, etc.). · Composite vocabulary: Romanian shares a common vocabulary with many European languages: o Substratum: Thraco-Dacian (partly shared with Albanian) o Stratum: Latin (60% of the Romanian basic vocabulary) o Superstratum: Slavic (the influence of Old Slavic was compared to the Germanic superstratum in Western Romance languages). o Loanwords: § Until the beginning of the 19th c. — loanwords from non-Romance languages: South-Slavic languages, Hungarian, Turk, Greek § Starting the first half of the 19th c. — rapid and intense relatinization, modernization and westernization of the Romanian vocabulary (loanwords from French, scholar Latin, Italian — approx. 40% of the contemporary Romanian vocabulary; loanwords also from German, Russian, English) · Stylistic varieties: scientific, legal-administrative, journalistic, artistic · Pragmatic type: positive politeness, redundancy, vagueness of some terms, implicit information contextually recovered, indirectness, polemic and rhetoric drive · Spelling on phonetic basis with few exceptions
B. Present-day situation The present-day situation in Romanian has resulted from the interplay of complex psychosocial and cultural factors. In a way, it is similar to the situation in the 19th c. In the 19th c., after a long period of Turkish and Greek influences, the Romanian language re-linked to its Latin patterns. Today, the transition of the Romanian society from totalitarism (langue de bois, monologism, strict hierarchies and unidirectionality of the discourse) to an open society corresponds to a search for new social, cultural and linguistic patterns. Here is an outline of the most important traces left by this process in language: · Dynamics of the vocabulary under the Anglo-Saxon influence, manifest also in many other languages; it results in the internationalization and intellectualization of the Romanian vocabulary · Massive loans and semantic extensions/restrictions from (American) English in the political/administrative/economic sciences, media, advertising, computers; loanwords used both in spoken and written language · Loanwords represent the basis for terminologies in new fields of activity, but they also entered in the active vocabulary of (more or less) educated people · Lexical creativity: the activation of some word formation processes, which have been less productive for decades (compound words, acronyms, some derivative prefixes and suffixes, international lexical formatives); new affixes in Romanian · A change in the distribution and frequency of some phonemes and strings of phonemes; new intonation patterns, in media especially (under the Anglo-Saxon influence) · Diversification of discourse types (use of both formal and colloquial styles in media; the neutralization of the distinction between functional loanwords and stylistic loanwords; linguistic snobbery) · Diversification in types of linguistic behavior III. LANGUAGE POLICIESWe believe that the promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity in EU should rely on joint policies of self-affirmation and invitation.
A. Language ecology policies 1. The normative policies of the Romanian Academy (founded 1866) and the Romanian Institute of Linguistics “Iorgu Iordan”(founded 1949) a) Reforms of the Romanian orthography. Norms of the correct use. Standardization · In 1881 the Romanian Academy issued the first Linguistic Reform as a means of unification of the Romanian orthography, the foundation of a pan-Romanian culture (the first unifying Romanian grammar had appeared in 1828; the emergence of literary styles, 1860); normative activity conducted today by the Language Cultivation Board of the Romanian Academy (purpose: to record, describe, explain phenomena, and cautiously prescribe norms: “Language ecology today must not be driven by preconceived ideas and intolerance, purism and discriminations”, Mioara Avram) · Reforms of the Romanian Orthography: 1904, 1932, 1953 (supplemented, 1965), 1993. (Indreptar Ortografic, Ortoepic și de Punctuație (1953, 1956, 1960, 1965, 1971, 1983, 1997), Dictionar Ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române, DOOM, 1982) · The norms of the Romanian Orthography have continued the phonetic principle prescribed in 1881 and refined it with morphological, etymological, traditional-historical, symbolic principles (in different proportions). An example: statistics indicate that in Romanian 22% of Anglicisms are spelt and pronounced like English, 44% spelt the English way, but pronounced differently, 33% Romanian like spelling; 60% of the informants use the variant in DOOM, which prescribes the original pronunciation and spelling · The Romanian norms are considered slightly conservative, but far more permissive and innovative compared to the academic norms of other languages (i.e., French). · Romanian was characterized (Alf Lombard) as the language the least fixed (by prescriptive norms) compared to other Romance Languages: there are many variants in use, some of them accepted by the academic norms; inconsistency in choosing and applying principles to lexical units; instability; differences in prescribing the norm from one dictionary to another · International Standardization: in the present context of multilingualism and globalization, concern for standardization of terminologies in collaboration with EU countries (ASRO – The Romanian Association for Standardization; TermRom – The Romanian Association for Terminology, founded 1991; ANSTI — The National Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation has a data base of 60,000 entries; electronic thesaurus to define concepts according to EU practices — 44.000 concepts, 200,000 entries on August 1st, 1999)
b) Grammars: Normative and prescriptive Romanian Academic Grammars (The Academic Grammar of the Romanian Language, 1962/1966, Mioara Avram, Grammar for Everybody, 1986/1997)
c) Dictionaries: The Dictionary of the Romanian Academy, thesaurus with approx. 175,000 entries, The Explicative Dictionary, The New Explicative Dictionary, Dictionary of the Modern Romanian Language, etc., specialized dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, etc.
d) The Conferences of the Romanian Academy focus on the language structure and language evolution related to cultural and historical issues, bilateral cultural relationships, the theory of translation, terminologies, etc.
2.Educational policies The reform of the Romanian educational system, especially between 1997- 2000, has produced a visible change from an ethnocentric model of education to a more flexible one, opened to dialogue and negotiation of alternatives. This perspective enables students:
o o understand the Romanian culture and language against the background of linguistic and cultural diversity (cross-curricular and interdisciplinary activities are encouraged); transculturality and multiculturalism are promoted o to get acquainted with the common heritage of the European culture and democracy o to cope with global interdependencies The negotiations between Romania and the EU in the field of education started in February 2000 and were successfully completed in May 2000 (see the Agenda 2000 prepared by the EU based on the analysis performed in 1996 and 1997; the Reports prepared by the EU based on the analysis of 1998, 1999; OECD Report of October 9, 1998; the public address of the European Commissioner for Culture and Education in Bucharest on the occasion of the 4th Conference of the European Ministers of Education, June 18-20, 2000). The educational policies of Romania promote a modern perspective in the study of the Romanian language and literature and support language preservation and development in Romanian communities outside the borders of Romania.
a) The Romanian Language in schools and higher education in Romania (i) Schools · The New National Curriculum for the Romanian language, literature and communication (elaborated between 1999 - 2000 by the National Council for Curriculum, approved by the National Commission for the Romanian Language subordinated to the Ministry of Education and Research ): it integrates prescriptive aspects of language preservation with communication as skilled behavior and emphasizes the language – culture interrelation · Number of classes per week (Romanian literature, language, communication): 4-5 in lower secondary schools, 3 - 4 in high schools · New alternative textbooks for the Romanian language and literature: 31, according to the Catalogue of Alternative Textbooks, 2000 - 2001, issued by the Ministry of Education and Research (13 for the 5th - 8th grades; 5 for the 9th grade; 13 for the 10th grade; for the 11th and 12th grade, forthcoming) · New evaluation standards elaborated by The National Assessment and Examination Service ( founded in 1998 ) · Romanian language and literature as compulsory subjects for national exams (graduation exam from lower secondary school, graduation exam from high school) · Interrelated study of Romanian and foreign languages, grouped in the same curricular area “language and communication” (ii) Higher education · The Romanian language and literature as major and minor subjects in more than 30 state universities in Romania (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Craiova, Sibiu, Constanta, Brasov, Arad, Tirgu Mures, Galati, Pitesti, Ploiesti, Suceava, Bacau, Alba Iulia, Oradea) and in several private ones · Interrelated study of Romanian and foreign languages: the academic syllabus stipulates the choice of two compulsory subjects (Romanian, major; a foreign language, minor) · The Romanian language as compulsory examination subject for the admission to higher education institutions (Departments of Letters, Philology/Arts, Journalism, Theology & Letters, Law, Public Administration, Public Relations, European Cultural Studies, The Police Academy) · 7 Institutes and Research Centers for Linguistics ( including departments for Romanian studies): The Institute for Linguistics "Iorgu Iordan", Bucharest; The Institute for Phonetic and Dialectological Research "Al. Rosetti", Bucharest; The Institute for Linguistics and Literary Theory "Sextil Puscariu", Cluj-Napoca; The Institute for Romanian Philology "Al. Philippide", Iasi; The Institute for Socio-Human Research "C.S. Nicolaescu‑Plopsor", Craiova; The Institute for Socio-Human Research "Titu Maiorescu", Timisoara;The Romanian Language Institute, Bucharest.
b) Romanian minorities worldwide Romanian minorities are to be found in territories neighbouring Romania and in diaspora communities all over the world. The language spoken by the Romanian minorities from Bulgaria (Vidin area), Hungary (Bekes district), Ukraine (North Bucovina, Hertza region, South Bassarabia) and Yugoslavia (the Serbian Banat, Timoc area) shares many common features with the (Daco)Romanian subdialects. Some of these communities of Romanian origin are still claiming a full protection of their linguistic rights. Three other ethnic groups who speak dialects historically related to Romanian live in the Balkans: the Aromanians (approx. 400,000-600,000 speakers in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); the Megleno-Romanian (approx. 5,000 speakers in Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); the Istro-Romanian (1,5000 speakers in 2 small areas in the Istrian Peninsula, Croatia).
Romania promotes policies for language and cultural identity preservation of the Romanian communities living all over the world: · The “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi” Center for the Romanians all over the World (founded in 1998): o Offers about 400 scholarships per year in Romania for Romanian minorities (especially from Ukraine) and tuition for the preparatory academic year; future enlargement perspectives for the Romanian minorities from Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia o Organizes training and refresher courses for teachers of the Romanian minorities o The “Romanian School” Programme: school exchanges, books donations, etc. o The ARC Programme: summer camps for children coming from Romanian minority communities. · School and academic exchanges, especially with the Republic of Moldavia (over 10 billion lei / 5 million USD per year) · Joint curricula and joint research programmes of Romanian and Moldavian universities and language research institutes (e.g., The Syntactic Dictionary of the Romanian Language, The Derivative Dictionary of the Romanian Language, Handbook to Romanian, The Common Usage Dictionary of the Romanian Language, Patrom — The International Dictionary of Anthroponyms) · The first Romanian school and university extensions through franchising in the Republic of Moldavia (in 2000): ex. in Balti, in Cahul with the support of the University “Dunarea de Jos” Galati · Several rounds of negotiations (in 1999-2000) with the authorities of Ukraine, Austria and Israel for organizing a multicultural university in Chernovtsy /Cernauti (Ukrainian, German, Hebrew, Romanian lines of study), not yet implemented · Studies on the Romanian language spoken by the Romanian minorities: Romanian Subdialects from Basarabia, Transnistria, North Bucovina, and North Maramureș. Texts and Glossary (2000); The Romanian Language in the Timoc Valley, by Virgil Nistorescu (2000); Dialectological Studies on the Romanian Communities in Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Albania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, coordinated by “The Institute for Phonetics and Dialectological Research” in Bucharest, in progress
3. Media & cultural policies Concern for preserving language norms, in the context of the accelerated rate of language change / innovation: · Radio & TV language programmes (approx. 260 minutes per week on national channels): o “Vorba dulce româneascã”, 30 min./5 days per week on România Cultural o “Ghid radiofonic de exprimare corectã”, 3 min./ 5 days per week on România Actualitãți o “Ghid radiofonic de exprimare corectã”, 3 min./ 5 days per week on România Tineret o “Odã limbii române”, 30 min./ once a week on România Cultural o “Corect”, 10 min./ 5 days per week on TVR 1 (National TV Channel of Romania) · Articles and studies dedicated to the Romanian language published by linguists, writers, literary critics, etc. in linguistic journals (Limba Românã, Studii și cecetãri lingvistice, Revue roumaine de linguistique, Limbã si literaturã, Dacoromania, a.o.), and in the daily / weekly press: after 1995, approx. 500-1000 articles per year (according to BLR / Romanian Linguistics Bibliography) · Books on the Romanian language published between 1998-2000: 50 in Romania, 7 in other countries · Romanian on the web: at www. unilat.work/dpel/ro/index/htm, one can find the Romanian Language Bulletin, which offers various information about the study and the promotion of the Romanian language in Romania and abroad.
B. Policies for promoting linguistic and cultural diversity In a world of globalized values, languages, as culture mediators, facilitate human contacts and acceptance of differences. Because foreign languages proficiency is a key instrument for the common understanding between the citizens of Europe, as well as a basic quality indicator in education (according to the Report of the European Commission on Quality of School Education, May, 2000), Romania has constantly promoted international foreign languages classes in schools and universities. The study of less widely spoken languages is also encouraged.
1. Study of the European languages in the Romanian educational system. Media and translations. · Foreign languages & cultures in schools: focus on communication / conversational skills, language-mentality interconnections, modern teaching techniques o Early study of the 1st foreign language: starting the 2nd grade o The study of the second foreign language: starting the 6th grade o The study of the third foreign language: optional in high schools o Number of classes per week: 2-4 or more, depending on the profile of study (sciences /humanities), and type of tuition (normal, intensive, bilingual) o Special programmes for extending German studies, following the Romanian cultural tradition (new centers in Constanta, Craiova, Suceava, the foundation of a second German high school in Bucharest “Alexandru Vlahuțã”, founded 2000, etc.) o New alternative textbooks (some elaborated in collaboration with foreign specialists houses): 12 for the 5th-8th grades/ per language; English 23 for the 9th grade and 23 for the 10th grade; Russian 3 for the 9th grade; German 6 for the 9th grade and 9 for the 10th grade;French 6 for the 9th grade and 13 for the 10th grade; Spanish 2 for the 10th grade; the textbooks for the 11th and 12th grades, forthcoming. o Excellent results of Romanian school students in international foreign languages contests: 1st prize in the International Public Speaking Competition won by Adriana Ionascu from Romania (in 1998); 1st prize , 2nd prize and special mention in the German language Olympics (in 2000) o The foundation of regional centers for documentation in European cultural issues (in 2000) o The Regional Center of Francophony founded in Arcalia, Bistrita, in collaboration with France o The Romanian teaching staff is part of ESU (The English-Speaking Union) o Participation of Romanian teachers in European programmes for language training and refresher courses: the foundation in 1998 of the National Agency Socrates ( the 2nd stage of the Socrates programmes started in June 2000) favours transnational contacts, linguistic and cultural diversity, and joint educational projects; Lingua Programme: 52 projects and 34 preparatory visits between 1997-1999 · Foreign languages & cultures in Romanian universities: o Studied in over 30 state universities in Romania and in several private ones o Foreign languages are compulsory examination subjects for the admission to departments, such as: Letters, Philology, Theology, Political Sciences, Public Relations, etc. o Foreign languages as majors or minors: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish o Majors only: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Turkish, Ukrainian o Minors only: Dutch, Swedish o Optional: Catalan, Finish, Flemish (University of Sibiu), Modern Greek, a.o. o The extension of technical, medical, economic, legal studies, etc. in foreign languages in the most important Romanian universities (future mobilities of specialists in the EU are encouraged) o The foundation and extension of cultural European studies departments in Romanian universities (access to the common heritage of European history and culture is encouraged) o Language teaching centers, cultural and excellence research centers for foreign language studies in the main Romanian state universities: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Sibiu, Constanta (for the Balkan languages), Craiova, a.o. o Participation of students and teaching staff in European academic mobilities programmes (ERASMUS), between 1997-1999 ( according to the Study on the Impact of Socrates Programme in Romania, June 2000) : § TS ( teaching staff for joint curricular activities): 110 persons involved ( in Philology) § ILC (integrated language courses): 6 persons involved § Philology students mobilities: 140 persons involved ( out of 1250 in all fields of study), including the pilot project ILPC (Intensive language preparatory courses for learning less widely spoken European languages) o Participation of Romania (since 1999) in the project “The Academy of Latinity network”, initiated by France with a view to promoting Romance languages and cultures in the world · Foreign languages in the media. Programmes for professional translators: o Foreign languages lessons: on the National TV Channel, TVR 1 (daily) o Broad access to TV cable (direct access to foreign languages) o Subtitled films (direct access to the original language) o Programmes for professional translators’ formation: TEMPUS JEP 3181 (Joint European Project on the recommendation of the Council of Europe, 1992, to form professional translators and interpreters); special departments for translators and interpreters in Romanian universities
2. The protection of the linguistic rights of the national minorities in Romania 18 officially recognized national minorities ( Census of January 7, 1992) live in Romania: Hungarians 1,624,959, Rromas (Gypsies) 401,087, Germans 119,462, Ukrainians 65,764, Lippovan Russians 38,606, Turks 29,832, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes 33,493, Tartars 24,596, Slovaks 19,594, Bulgarians 9,851, Jewish 8,955, Czechs 5,797, Poles 4,232, Greeks 3,940, Armenians 1,957, other nationalities 8,602, unstated ethnic descent 766. Romania’s official language policies protect the right of national minorities to be regarded as language communities, the right to use one’s own language both in private and in public, the right to use one’s own name, the right of ethnic communities for their own language and culture to be taught, access to cultural services and communication media, the right to receive attention in one’s own mother tongue from government bodies and in socioeconomic relations, a.o.
· Educational policies for the protection of national minorities: o The educational system for minorities represents 10.01 % of the Romanian educational system o The school network for national minorities ( % of the Romanian educational system): Pre-school units:10.3 %; Primary school units and sections: 8.87 %; Middle school units and sections: 9.98 %; Secondary school units and sections: 12 %; Vocational school units and sections: 10.3 %; Students in 1999/2000 academic year: 5.1 %;Teaching staff: 4.86 % o Pre-university school network for minorities by language of tuition in 1999/2000 school year: Hungarian school units and sections: 8.7 %; German 1 %; Ukrainian 0.06 %; Serbian 0.1 %; Slovak 0.1 %; Czech 0.02 %; Croatian 0.01 % a.o. o Number of students enrolled in the 1999/2000 academic year in state and private universities: 5.1 % ( Hungarians 19,654, Germans 1,693, other minorities 1,899) o Universities: § The multicultural University “Babes-Bolyai” in Cluj- Napoca with 3 lines of study: Hungarian (13 Depts.), German (12 Depts.), Romanian; multilingual university colleges in Sf. Gheorghe, Gheorghieni, Satu Mare § Another 10 state universities have separate sections for minorities: Bucharest (3) , Tirgu Mures (2), Timisoara (3), Suceava, Constanța o Recent progress in extending the school network for national minorities: The Bulgarian College in Bucharest (founded in 2000) o The diversification of levels of tuition: tuition in the mother tongue, tuition partially in the mother tongue, tuition in Romanian with the study of the mother tongue by request o Programmes for textbook elaboration: translated from Romanian or elaborated in collaboration with specialists from mother tongue countries of the minorities o The training of the teaching staff and refresher courses: The creation of the network of colleges for teaching staff formation in Sibiu, Timisoara, Brasov, Constanta, Cluj-Napoca, Suceava, Mediaș (The German Center for Life-long Learning) o Special programmes for Rroma communities: § Positive discrimination of Rromas programmes meant to facilitate a broader access to education (1998-2000): different conditions for admission in schools and universities (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara, Craiova, Brasov, Constanta, Oradea, Suceava) § Appointment of territorial school inspectors of Rroma origin § Teaching staff training programmes § Elaboration of curricula and textbooks for Rromas § Rromani language courses in 26 Romanian districts (out of 40), such as: Mures, Dolj, Iasi, Bacau, Timis, Olt, Hunedoara, Arad, a.o., and at the University of Bucharest § Second chance programmes for Rromas who have abandoned the educational system · Cultural and media policies for the protection of national minorities: o The “Proetnicultura” National Programme of the Ministry of Culture ( 358 projects/activities between 1997-2000): promotes the culture and traditions of national minorities, the development of mother tongue abilities (language camps, literature contests, theatre performances in Hungarian, German, Hebrew a.o. in Bucharest, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Tirgu Mures) o A programme of the Ministry of Culture finances the written culture of the minorities: 486,000,000 lei in 2000 o Programmes for minorities in the media: Radio Antena Bucurestilor: 1 hour Hungarian, 1 hour German/ daily; Regional Radio studios: 2-3 hours/daily according to the ethnic specificity of the area; TVR 1 (The National TV Channel of Romania): 330 minutes/per week for all minorities (150 minutes in Hungarian, 90 minutes in German); Regional TV studios in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara
3. Romanian as a foreign language · 71 Romanian language and culture Departments in European universities: in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, a.o.; courses in Romanian language and culture as major and minor subjects · 6 Romanian cultural centers in Europe: in Antwerpen/Anvers (Belgium), Berlin (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), Paris (France), Rome (Italy), Venice (Italy), Vienna (Austria); promote the Romanian language and culture abroad · The Institute for the Romanian Language (founded in 1999) encourages the study of Romanian as a foreign language and offers financial support; assists Romanian universities to elaborate language courses and teaching materials; organizes language courses, by request, issues official language certificates, collaborates with the Romanian Language Departments and Cultural Centers in the world, coordinates international cooperation programmes · The Romanian Cultural Foundation (founded in 1990) has among other objectives: to promote the Romanian language and cultural values all over the world; to mediate contacts among Romanian persons and institutions, on one hand, and persons and institutions abroad, on the other hand; to organize international seminars and congresses on the Romanian language and culture: Romanian Culture in the Universities of the World (Sibiu, 1996); Romanian Culture in the Contemporary World (1998); Latinity: The Future of the Past (1999); Romanians and the Culture of Europe (Sinaia, 2000), a.o. · Romanian Summer Courses (beginners, intermediate, advanced) are organized by: University of Bucharest, University “Babeș-Bolyai“ in Cluj-Napoca, West University of Timisoara, Romanian Cultural Foundation, a.o.
IV. CONCLUSIONS: Romanian and the EU integration Due to its performative potential, language constructs the social, institutional reality (Searle:1995). As linguists, we believe that human communities can be better understood as discursive phenomena yield by Language; since communication is inherently differential, ideologically produced differences within communities should be the base for the communitarian dialogue and negotiations. As professors, we believe that communitarian institutions and the intercultural identities they need (assumed or claimed, not assigned by stereotypes and generalizations) can be shaped within the educational process; the educational discourse should favour cultural and linguistic differences as a base for dialogue and negotiation, and build a sense of commonalty, where degree of sameness arises from shared mediators. As linguists and professors we teach our students that Language is a mediator in a world of discourses where today’s cultural other is tomorrow’s partner in dialogue. As aspirants to the European citizenship, we believe that plurilingualism is an important pathway to an effective political, social, economic and cultural integration in the EU.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Avram, Mioara, La creativite du Roumain, în Rumanisch: Typologie, Klassifikation, Sprachcharakteristik, Tutzing, 1993. Dicționarul ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române, București, Editura Academiei, 1989 Enciclopedia limbilor romanice, Editura Științificã și Enciclopedicã, București, 1989. European Commission, European Report on Quality of School Education, May, 2000. Goldberg, David Theo, Multiculturalism. A Critical Reader, Blackwell, Oxford UK and Cambridge USA, 1994/1995/1996. Hart, Jonathan, Bauman, Richard (eds.), Explorations in Difference. Law, Culture, and Politics, University of Toronto Press, 1996. Indreptar ortografic, ortoepic și de punctuație al limbii române, București, Univers Enciclopedic, 1997. Limba românã și varietãțile ei locale, București, Editura Academiei, 1995. Marga, Andrei, Anii reformei 1997-2000, Editura Fundației de Studii Europene, Cluj, 2000. Marga, Andrei, Educația în tranziție, Cluj, Dacia, 1999. Ministerul Culturii, Politici și strategii culturale (1997-2000), IMC, 2000. OECD, Analiza politicilor naționale în domeniul educației. România, 2000. Râpeanu Reinheimer, Sanda, Lexicul limbii române în perspectivã romanicã, București, Editura Academiei, 1998. Sala Marius, Avram Mioara, May We Introduce the Romanian Language to You?, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, București, 2000. Sala Marius, Limba românã, limbã romanicã, București, Editura Academiei, 1997. Sala, Marius, De la latinã la românã, București, Univers Enciclopedic, 1998. The Ethos of Education for National Minorities in Romania, 1999-2000, MEN, 2000. Tratat de dialectologie românã, Craiova, Scrisul Românesc, 1984. Union Latine, La Terminologie en Roumanie et en Republique de Moldova, 2000.
Martie 2001
Romanian@languagesnet.EU
I. LANDMARKS
II. TYPOLOGYA. Historical perspective B. Present-day situation
III. LANGUAGE POLICIESA. Language ecology policies1. The normative policies of the Romanian Academy and the Romanian Institute of Linguistics “Iorgu Iordan” a) Reforms of the Romanian orthography. Norms of the correct use. Standardization b) Grammars c) Dictionaries d) The Conferences of the Romanian Academy 2. Educational policies a) The Romanian Language in schools and in higher education in Romania b) Romanian minorities worldwide 3. Media and cultural policies
B. Policies for promoting linguistic and cultural diversity 1. Study of the European foreign languages in the Romanian educational system. Media and translations 2. The protection of the linguistic rights of national minorities in Romania 3. Romanian as a foreign language
IV. CONCLUSIONS: Romanian and the EU integration
In a Europe of languages, the chance of Romanian derives from two aspects: first, it is part of the network of Romance languages; second, it shares a great deal of linguistic and cultural features with other European languages. The EU integration language policies of Romania are backed by the intercultural identity which the language itself has acquired in time, due to diverse cultural and linguistic experiences. In a world of discourses, the role of educational systems is to promote the self – alterity dialogue taking language as a mediator.
I. LANDMARKS· Romanian is the most Oriental Romance language (Balkan-Romance group); it developed in isolation from Western Romance languages; it preserved Latin elements lost in other Romance languages; due to its special Latin structure and vocabulary it was metaphorically called “the 4th leg of the Romance table” (Alf Lombard) · Spoken by over 28,500,000 - 29,000,000 speakers: o Mother tongue for approx. 24,900,000 speakers: 20,500,000 speakers in Romania + 2,900,000 speakers in the Republic of Moldavia (officially called the Moldavian language) + 1,500,000 in the countries neighbouring Romania (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine) and communities of immigrants in the U.S.A., Canada, Latin America, Australia, Israel, Turkey and other European and Asian countries. · Romanian has 4 dialects (Daco-Romanian/ Romanian, Aromanian, Istro-Romanian, Megleno-Romanian); the Daco-Romanian/Romanian has 5 subdialects.
II. TYPOLOGY A. Historical perspective Romanian is a Neolatin language, descendant of the vulgar (popular) Latin. The history of the Romanian language reveals a special relationship between conservationism, language loyalty and vitality, a high degree of flexibility in contact with diverse cultures and languages.
This special relationship shaped the intercultural identity of the Romanian language: · Synthetic structure, which interferes with elements of analytism: Romanian has inherited the Latin morpho-syntactic structure; few non-Romance influences in the language structure (-o vocatives, the neuter gender, reflexives, subjunctive, etc.). · Composite vocabulary: Romanian shares a common vocabulary with many European languages: o Substratum: Thraco-Dacian (partly shared with Albanian) o Stratum: Latin (60% of the Romanian basic vocabulary) o Superstratum: Slavic (the influence of Old Slavic was compared to the Germanic superstratum in Western Romance languages). o Loanwords: § Until the beginning of the 19th c. — loanwords from non-Romance languages: South-Slavic languages, Hungarian, Turk, Greek § Starting the first half of the 19th c. — rapid and intense relatinization, modernization and westernization of the Romanian vocabulary (loanwords from French, scholar Latin, Italian — approx. 40% of the contemporary Romanian vocabulary; loanwords also from German, Russian, English) · Stylistic varieties: scientific, legal-administrative, journalistic, artistic · Pragmatic type: positive politeness, redundancy, vagueness of some terms, implicit information contextually recovered, indirectness, polemic and rhetoric drive · Spelling on phonetic basis with few exceptions
B. Present-day situation The present-day situation in Romanian has resulted from the interplay of complex psychosocial and cultural factors. In a way, it is similar to the situation in the 19th c. In the 19th c., after a long period of Turkish and Greek influences, the Romanian language re-linked to its Latin patterns. Today, the transition of the Romanian society from totalitarism (langue de bois, monologism, strict hierarchies and unidirectionality of the discourse) to an open society corresponds to a search for new social, cultural and linguistic patterns.
Here is an outline of the most important traces left by this process in language: · Dynamics of the vocabulary under the Anglo-Saxon influence, manifest also in many other languages; it results in the internationalization and intellectualization of the Romanian vocabulary · Massive loans and semantic extensions/restrictions from (American) English in the political/administrative/economic sciences, media, advertising, computers; loanwords used both in spoken and written language · Loanwords represent the basis for terminologies in new fields of activity, but they also entered in the active vocabulary of (more or less) educated people · Lexical creativity: the activation of some word formation processes, which have been less productive for decades (compound words, acronyms, some derivative prefixes and suffixes, international lexical formatives); new affixes in Romanian · A change in the distribution and frequency of some phonemes and strings of phonemes; new intonation patterns, in media especially (under the Anglo-Saxon influence) · Diversification of discourse types (use of both formal and colloquial styles in media; the neutralization of the distinction between functional loanwords and stylistic loanwords; linguistic snobbery) · Diversification in types of linguistic behavior
III. LANGUAGE POLICIESWe believe that the promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity in EU should rely on joint policies of self-affirmation and invitation.
A. Language ecology policies 1. The normative policies of the Romanian Academy (founded 1866) and the Romanian Institute of Linguistics “Iorgu Iordan”(founded 1949) a) Reforms of the Romanian orthography. Norms of the correct use. Standardization · In 1881 the Romanian Academy issued the first Linguistic Reform as a means of unification of the Romanian orthography, the foundation of a pan-Romanian culture (the first unifying Romanian grammar had appeared in 1828; the emergence of literary styles, 1860); normative activity conducted today by the Language Cultivation Board of the Romanian Academy (purpose: to record, describe, explain phenomena, and cautiously prescribe norms: “Language ecology today must not be driven by preconceived ideas and intolerance, purism and discriminations”, Mioara Avram) · Reforms of the Romanian Orthography: 1904, 1932, 1953 (supplemented, 1965), 1993. (Indreptar Ortografic, Ortoepic și de Punctuație (1953, 1956, 1960, 1965, 1971, 1983, 1997), Dictionar Ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române, DOOM, 1982) · The norms of the Romanian Orthography have continued the phonetic principle prescribed in 1881 and refined it with morphological, etymological, traditional-historical, symbolic principles (in different proportions). An example: statistics indicate that in Romanian 22% of Anglicisms are spelt and pronounced like English, 44% spelt the English way, but pronounced differently, 33% Romanian like spelling; 60% of the informants use the variant in DOOM, which prescribes the original pronunciation and spelling · The Romanian norms are considered slightly conservative, but far more permissive and innovative compared to the academic norms of other languages (i.e., French). · Romanian was characterized (Alf Lombard) as the language the least fixed (by prescriptive norms) compared to other Romance Languages: there are many variants in use, some of them accepted by the academic norms; inconsistency in choosing and applying principles to lexical units; instability; differences in prescribing the norm from one dictionary to another · International Standardization: in the present context of multilingualism and globalization, concern for standardization of terminologies in collaboration with EU countries (ASRO – The Romanian Association for Standardization; TermRom – The Romanian Association for Terminology, founded 1991; ANSTI — The National Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation has a data base of 60,000 entries; electronic thesaurus to define concepts according to EU practices — 44.000 concepts, 200,000 entries on August 1st, 1999)
b) Grammars: Normative and prescriptive Romanian Academic Grammars (The Academic Grammar of the Romanian Language, 1962/1966, Mioara Avram, Grammar for Everybody, 1986/1997)
c) Dictionaries: The Dictionary of the Romanian Academy, thesaurus with approx. 175,000 entries, The Explicative Dictionary, The New Explicative Dictionary, Dictionary of the Modern Romanian Language, etc., specialized dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, etc.
d) The Conferences of the Romanian Academy focus on the language structure and language evolution related to cultural and historical issues, bilateral cultural relationships, the theory of translation, terminologies, etc.
2.Educational policies The reform of the Romanian educational system, especially between 1997- 2000, has produced a visible change from an ethnocentric model of education to a more flexible one, opened to dialogue and negotiation of alternatives. This perspective enables students:
o o understand the Romanian culture and language against the background of linguistic and cultural diversity (cross-curricular and interdisciplinary activities are encouraged); transculturality and multiculturalism are promoted o to get acquainted with the common heritage of the European culture and democracy o to cope with global interdependencies The negotiations between Romania and the EU in the field of education started in February 2000 and were successfully completed in May 2000 (see the Agenda 2000 prepared by the EU based on the analysis performed in 1996 and 1997; the Reports prepared by the EU based on the analysis of 1998, 1999; OECD Report of October 9, 1998; the public address of the European Commissioner for Culture and Education in Bucharest on the occasion of the 4th Conference of the European Ministers of Education, June 18-20, 2000). The educational policies of Romania promote a modern perspective in the study of the Romanian language and literature and support language preservation and development in Romanian communities outside the borders of Romania.
a) The Romanian Language in schools and higher education in Romania (i) Schools · The New National Curriculum for the Romanian language, literature and communication (elaborated between 1999 - 2000 by the National Council for Curriculum, approved by the National Commission for the Romanian Language subordinated to the Ministry of Education and Research ): it integrates prescriptive aspects of language preservation with communication as skilled behavior and emphasizes the language – culture interrelation · Number of classes per week (Romanian literature, language, communication): 4-5 in lower secondary schools, 3 - 4 in high schools · New alternative textbooks for the Romanian language and literature: 31, according to the Catalogue of Alternative Textbooks, 2000 - 2001, issued by the Ministry of Education and Research (13 for the 5th - 8th grades; 5 for the 9th grade; 13 for the 10th grade; for the 11th and 12th grade, forthcoming) · New evaluation standards elaborated by The National Assessment and Examination Service ( founded in 1998 ) · Romanian language and literature as compulsory subjects for national exams (graduation exam from lower secondary school, graduation exam from high school) · Interrelated study of Romanian and foreign languages, grouped in the same curricular area “language and communication” (ii) Higher education · The Romanian language and literature as major and minor subjects in more than 30 state universities in Romania (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Craiova, Sibiu, Constanta, Brasov, Arad, Tirgu Mures, Galati, Pitesti, Ploiesti, Suceava, Bacau, Alba Iulia, Oradea) and in several private ones · Interrelated study of Romanian and foreign languages: the academic syllabus stipulates the choice of two compulsory subjects (Romanian, major; a foreign language, minor) · The Romanian language as compulsory examination subject for the admission to higher education institutions (Departments of Letters, Philology/Arts, Journalism, Theology & Letters, Law, Public Administration, Public Relations, European Cultural Studies, The Police Academy) · 7 Institutes and Research Centers for Linguistics ( including departments for Romanian studies): The Institute for Linguistics "Iorgu Iordan", Bucharest; The Institute for Phonetic and Dialectological Research "Al. Rosetti", Bucharest; The Institute for Linguistics and Literary Theory "Sextil Puscariu", Cluj-Napoca; The Institute for Romanian Philology "Al. Philippide", Iasi; The Institute for Socio-Human Research "C.S. Nicolaescu‑Plopsor", Craiova; The Institute for Socio-Human Research "Titu Maiorescu", Timisoara;The Romanian Language Institute, Bucharest.
b) Romanian minorities worldwide Romanian minorities are to be found in territories neighbouring Romania and in diaspora communities all over the world. The language spoken by the Romanian minorities from Bulgaria (Vidin area), Hungary (Bekes district), Ukraine (North Bucovina, Hertza region, South Bassarabia) and Yugoslavia (the Serbian Banat, Timoc area) shares many common features with the (Daco)Romanian subdialects. Some of these communities of Romanian origin are still claiming a full protection of their linguistic rights. Three other ethnic groups who speak dialects historically related to Romanian live in the Balkans: the Aromanians (approx. 400,000-600,000 speakers in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); the Megleno-Romanian (approx. 5,000 speakers in Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); the Istro-Romanian (1,5000 speakers in 2 small areas in the Istrian Peninsula, Croatia).
Romania promotes policies for language and cultural identity preservation of the Romanian communities living all over the world: · The “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi” Center for the Romanians all over the World (founded in 1998): o Offers about 400 scholarships per year in Romania for Romanian minorities (especially from Ukraine) and tuition for the preparatory academic year; future enlargement perspectives for the Romanian minorities from Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia o Organizes training and refresher courses for teachers of the Romanian minorities o The “Romanian School” Programme: school exchanges, books donations, etc. o The ARC Programme: summer camps for children coming from Romanian minority communities. · School and academic exchanges, especially with the Republic of Moldavia (over 10 billion lei / 5 million USD per year) · Joint curricula and joint research programmes of Romanian and Moldavian universities and language research institutes (e.g., The Syntactic Dictionary of the Romanian Language, The Derivative Dictionary of the Romanian Language, Handbook to Romanian, The Common Usage Dictionary of the Romanian Language, Patrom — The International Dictionary of Anthroponyms) · The first Romanian school and university extensions through franchising in the Republic of Moldavia (in 2000): ex. in Balti, in Cahul with the support of the University “Dunarea de Jos” Galati · Several rounds of negotiations (in 1999-2000) with the authorities of Ukraine, Austria and Israel for organizing a multicultural university in Chernovtsy /Cernauti (Ukrainian, German, Hebrew, Romanian lines of study), not yet implemented · Studies on the Romanian language spoken by the Romanian minorities: Romanian Subdialects from Basarabia, Transnistria, North Bucovina, and North Maramureș. Texts and Glossary (2000); The Romanian Language in the Timoc Valley, by Virgil Nistorescu (2000); Dialectological Studies on the Romanian Communities in Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Albania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, coordinated by “The Institute for Phonetics and Dialectological Research” in Bucharest, in progress
3. Media & cultural policies Concern for preserving language norms, in the context of the accelerated rate of language change / innovation: · Radio & TV language programmes (approx. 260 minutes per week on national channels): o “Vorba dulce româneascã”, 30 min./5 days per week on România Cultural o “Ghid radiofonic de exprimare corectã”, 3 min./ 5 days per week on România Actualitãți o “Ghid radiofonic de exprimare corectã”, 3 min./ 5 days per week on România Tineret o “Odã limbii române”, 30 min./ once a week on România Cultural o “Corect”, 10 min./ 5 days per week on TVR 1 (National TV Channel of Romania) · Articles and studies dedicated to the Romanian language published by linguists, writers, literary critics, etc. in linguistic journals (Limba Românã, Studii și cecetãri lingvistice, Revue roumaine de linguistique, Limbã si literaturã, Dacoromania, a.o.), and in the daily / weekly press: after 1995, approx. 500-1000 articles per year (according to BLR / Romanian Linguistics Bibliography) · Books on the Romanian language published between 1998-2000: 50 in Romania, 7 in other countries · Romanian on the web: at www. unilat.work/dpel/ro/index/htm, one can find the Romanian Language Bulletin, which offers various information about the study and the promotion of the Romanian language in Romania and abroad.
B. Policies for promoting linguistic and cultural diversity In a world of globalized values, languages, as culture mediators, facilitate human contacts and acceptance of differences. Because foreign languages proficiency is a key instrument for the common understanding between the citizens of Europe, as well as a basic quality indicator in education (according to the Report of the European Commission on Quality of School Education, May, 2000), Romania has constantly promoted international foreign languages classes in schools and universities. The study of less widely spoken languages is also encouraged.
1. Study of the European languages in the Romanian educational system. Media and translations. · Foreign languages & cultures in schools: focus on communication / conversational skills, language-mentality interconnections, modern teaching techniques o Early study of the 1st foreign language: starting the 2nd grade o The study of the second foreign language: starting the 6th grade o The study of the third foreign language: optional in high schools o Number of classes per week: 2-4 or more, depending on the profile of study (sciences /humanities), and type of tuition (normal, intensive, bilingual) o Special programmes for extending German studies, following the Romanian cultural tradition (new centers in Constanta, Craiova, Suceava, the foundation of a second German high school in Bucharest “Alexandru Vlahuțã”, founded 2000, etc.) o New alternative textbooks (some elaborated in collaboration with foreign specialists houses): 12 for the 5th-8th grades/ per language; English 23 for the 9th grade and 23 for the 10th grade; Russian 3 for the 9th grade; German 6 for the 9th grade and 9 for the 10th grade;French 6 for the 9th grade and 13 for the 10th grade; Spanish 2 for the 10th grade; the textbooks for the 11th and 12th grades, forthcoming. o Excellent results of Romanian school students in international foreign languages contests: 1st prize in the International Public Speaking Competition won by Adriana Ionascu from Romania (in 1998); 1st prize , 2nd prize and special mention in the German language Olympics (in 2000) o The foundation of regional centers for documentation in European cultural issues (in 2000) o The Regional Center of Francophony founded in Arcalia, Bistrita, in collaboration with France o The Romanian teaching staff is part of ESU (The English-Speaking Union) o Participation of Romanian teachers in European programmes for language training and refresher courses: the foundation in 1998 of the National Agency Socrates ( the 2nd stage of the Socrates programmes started in June 2000) favours transnational contacts, linguistic and cultural diversity, and joint educational projects; Lingua Programme: 52 projects and 34 preparatory visits between 1997-1999 · Foreign languages & cultures in Romanian universities: o Studied in over 30 state universities in Romania and in several private ones o Foreign languages are compulsory examination subjects for the admission to departments, such as: Letters, Philology, Theology, Political Sciences, Public Relations, etc. o Foreign languages as majors or minors: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish o Majors only: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Turkish, Ukrainian o Minors only: Dutch, Swedish o Optional: Catalan, Finish, Flemish (University of Sibiu), Modern Greek, a.o. o The extension of technical, medical, economic, legal studies, etc. in foreign languages in the most important Romanian universities (future mobilities of specialists in the EU are encouraged) o The foundation and extension of cultural European studies departments in Romanian universities (access to the common heritage of European history and culture is encouraged) o Language teaching centers, cultural and excellence research centers for foreign language studies in the main Romanian state universities: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Sibiu, Constanta (for the Balkan languages), Craiova, a.o. o Participation of students and teaching staff in European academic mobilities programmes (ERASMUS), between 1997-1999 ( according to the Study on the Impact of Socrates Programme in Romania, June 2000) : § TS ( teaching staff for joint curricular activities): 110 persons involved ( in Philology) § ILC (integrated language courses): 6 persons involved § Philology students mobilities: 140 persons involved ( out of 1250 in all fields of study), including the pilot project ILPC (Intensive language preparatory courses for learning less widely spoken European languages) o Participation of Romania (since 1999) in the project “The Academy of Latinity network”, initiated by France with a view to promoting Romance languages and cultures in the world · Foreign languages in the media. Programmes for professional translators: o Foreign languages lessons: on the National TV Channel, TVR 1 (daily) o Broad access to TV cable (direct access to foreign languages) o Subtitled films (direct access to the original language) o Programmes for professional translators’ formation: TEMPUS JEP 3181 (Joint European Project on the recommendation of the Council of Europe, 1992, to form professional translators and interpreters); special departments for translators and interpreters in Romanian universities
2. The protection of the linguistic rights of the national minorities in Romania 18 officially recognized national minorities ( Census of January 7, 1992) live in Romania: Hungarians 1,624,959, Rromas (Gypsies) 401,087, Germans 119,462, Ukrainians 65,764, Lippovan Russians 38,606, Turks 29,832, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes 33,493, Tartars 24,596, Slovaks 19,594, Bulgarians 9,851, Jewish 8,955, Czechs 5,797, Poles 4,232, Greeks 3,940, Armenians 1,957, other nationalities 8,602, unstated ethnic descent 766. Romania’s official language policies protect the right of national minorities to be regarded as language communities, the right to use one’s own language both in private and in public, the right to use one’s own name, the right of ethnic communities for their own language and culture to be taught, access to cultural services and communication media, the right to receive attention in one’s own mother tongue from government bodies and in socioeconomic relations, a.o.
· Educational policies for the protection of national minorities: o The educational system for minorities represents 10.01 % of the Romanian educational system o The school network for national minorities ( % of the Romanian educational system): Pre-school units:10.3 %; Primary school units and sections: 8.87 %; Middle school units and sections: 9.98 %; Secondary school units and sections: 12 %; Vocational school units and sections: 10.3 %; Students in 1999/2000 academic year: 5.1 %;Teaching staff: 4.86 % o Pre-university school network for minorities by language of tuition in 1999/2000 school year: Hungarian school units and sections: 8.7 %; German 1 %; Ukrainian 0.06 %; Serbian 0.1 %; Slovak 0.1 %; Czech 0.02 %; Croatian 0.01 % a.o. o Number of students enrolled in the 1999/2000 academic year in state and private universities: 5.1 % ( Hungarians 19,654, Germans 1,693, other minorities 1,899) o Universities: § The multicultural University “Babes-Bolyai” in Cluj- Napoca with 3 lines of study: Hungarian (13 Depts.), German (12 Depts.), Romanian; multilingual university colleges in Sf. Gheorghe, Gheorghieni, Satu Mare § Another 10 state universities have separate sections for minorities: Bucharest (3) , Tirgu Mures (2), Timisoara (3), Suceava, Constanța o Recent progress in extending the school network for national minorities: The Bulgarian College in Bucharest (founded in 2000) o The diversification of levels of tuition: tuition in the mother tongue, tuition partially in the mother tongue, tuition in Romanian with the study of the mother tongue by request o Programmes for textbook elaboration: translated from Romanian or elaborated in collaboration with specialists from mother tongue countries of the minorities o The training of the teaching staff and refresher courses: The creation of the network of colleges for teaching staff formation in Sibiu, Timisoara, Brasov, Constanta, Cluj-Napoca, Suceava, Mediaș (The German Center for Life-long Learning) o Special programmes for Rroma communities: § Positive discrimination of Rromas programmes meant to facilitate a broader access to education (1998-2000): different conditions for admission in schools and universities (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara, Craiova, Brasov, Constanta, Oradea, Suceava) § Appointment of territorial school inspectors of Rroma origin § Teaching staff training programmes § Elaboration of curricula and textbooks for Rromas § Rromani language courses in 26 Romanian districts (out of 40), such as: Mures, Dolj, Iasi, Bacau, Timis, Olt, Hunedoara, Arad, a.o., and at the University of Bucharest § Second chance programmes for Rromas who have abandoned the educational system · Cultural and media policies for the protection of national minorities: o The “Proetnicultura” National Programme of the Ministry of Culture ( 358 projects/activities between 1997-2000): promotes the culture and traditions of national minorities, the development of mother tongue abilities (language camps, literature contests, theatre performances in Hungarian, German, Hebrew a.o. in Bucharest, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Tirgu Mures) o A programme of the Ministry of Culture finances the written culture of the minorities: 486,000,000 lei in 2000 o Programmes for minorities in the media: Radio Antena Bucurestilor: 1 hour Hungarian, 1 hour German/ daily; Regional Radio studios: 2-3 hours/daily according to the ethnic specificity of the area; TVR 1 (The National TV Channel of Romania): 330 minutes/per week for all minorities (150 minutes in Hungarian, 90 minutes in German); Regional TV studios in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara
3. Romanian as a foreign language · 71 Romanian language and culture Departments in European universities: in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, a.o.; courses in Romanian language and culture as major and minor subjects · 6 Romanian cultural centers in Europe: in Antwerpen/Anvers (Belgium), Berlin (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), Paris (France), Rome (Italy), Venice (Italy), Vienna (Austria); promote the Romanian language and culture abroad · The Institute for the Romanian Language (founded in 1999) encourages the study of Romanian as a foreign language and offers financial support; assists Romanian universities to elaborate language courses and teaching materials; organizes language courses, by request, issues official language certificates, collaborates with the Romanian Language Departments and Cultural Centers in the world, coordinates international cooperation programmes · The Romanian Cultural Foundation (founded in 1990) has among other objectives: to promote the Romanian language and cultural values all over the world; to mediate contacts among Romanian persons and institutions, on one hand, and persons and institutions abroad, on the other hand; to organize international seminars and congresses on the Romanian language and culture: Romanian Culture in the Universities of the World (Sibiu, 1996); Romanian Culture in the Contemporary World (1998); Latinity: The Future of the Past (1999); Romanians and the Culture of Europe (Sinaia, 2000), a.o. · Romanian Summer Courses (beginners, intermediate, advanced) are organized by: University of Bucharest, University “Babeș-Bolyai“ in Cluj-Napoca, West University of Timisoara, Romanian Cultural Foundation, a.o.
IV. CONCLUSIONS: Romanian and the EU integration Due to its performative potential, language constructs the social, institutional reality (Searle:1995). As linguists, we believe that human communities can be better understood as discursive phenomena yield by Language; since communication is inherently differential, ideologically produced differences within communities should be the base for the communitarian dialogue and negotiations. As professors, we believe that communitarian institutions and the intercultural identities they need (assumed or claimed, not assigned by stereotypes and generalizations) can be shaped within the educational process; the educational discourse should favour cultural and linguistic differences as a base for dialogue and negotiation, and build a sense of commonalty, where degree of sameness arises from shared mediators. As linguists and professors we teach our students that Language is a mediator in a world of discourses where today’s cultural other is tomorrow’s partner in dialogue. As aspirants to the European citizenship, we believe that plurilingualism is an important pathway to an effective political, social, economic and cultural integration in the EU.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Avram, Mioara, La creativite du Roumain, în Rumanisch: Typologie, Klassifikation, Sprachcharakteristik, Tutzing, 1993. Dicționarul ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române, București, Editura Academiei, 1989 Enciclopedia limbilor romanice, Editura Științificã și Enciclopedicã, București, 1989. European Commission, European Report on Quality of School Education, May, 2000. Goldberg, David Theo, Multiculturalism. A Critical Reader, Blackwell, Oxford UK and Cambridge USA, 1994/1995/1996. Hart, Jonathan, Bauman, Richard (eds.), Explorations in Difference. Law, Culture, and Politics, University of Toronto Press, 1996. Indreptar ortografic, ortoepic și de punctuație al limbii române, București, Univers Enciclopedic, 1997. Limba românã și varietãțile ei locale, București, Editura Academiei, 1995. Marga, Andrei, Anii reformei 1997-2000, Editura Fundației de Studii Europene, Cluj, 2000. Marga, Andrei, Educația în tranziție, Cluj, Dacia, 1999. Ministerul Culturii, Politici și strategii culturale (1997-2000), IMC, 2000. OECD, Analiza politicilor naționale în domeniul educației. România, 2000. Râpeanu Reinheimer, Sanda, Lexicul limbii române în perspectivã romanicã, București, Editura Academiei, 1998. Sala Marius, Avram Mioara, May We Introduce the Romanian Language to You?, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, București, 2000. Sala Marius, Limba românã, limbã romanicã, București, Editura Academiei, 1997. Sala, Marius, De la latinã la românã, București, Univers Enciclopedic, 1998. The Ethos of Education for National Minorities in Romania, 1999-2000, MEN, 2000. Tratat de dialectologie românã, Craiova, Scrisul Românesc, 1984. Union Latine, La Terminologie en Roumanie et en Republique de Moldova, 2000.
Martie 2001 Oana Chelaru Murăruș noas@pcnet.ro Andra Vasilescu v_andra@pcnet.ro
Romanian@languagesnet.EU
I. LANDMARKS
II. TYPOLOGYA. Historical perspective B. Present-day situation
III. LANGUAGE POLICIESA. Language ecology policies1. The normative policies of the Romanian Academy and the Romanian Institute of Linguistics “Iorgu Iordan” a) Reforms of the Romanian orthography. Norms of the correct use. Standardization b) Grammars c) Dictionaries d) The Conferences of the Romanian Academy 2. Educational policies a) The Romanian Language in schools and in higher education in Romania b) Romanian minorities worldwide 3. Media and cultural policies
B. Policies for promoting linguistic and cultural diversity 1. Study of the European foreign languages in the Romanian educational system. Media and translations 2. The protection of the linguistic rights of national minorities in Romania 3. Romanian as a foreign language
IV. CONCLUSIONS: Romanian and the EU integration
In a Europe of languages, the chance of Romanian derives from two aspects: first, it is part of the network of Romance languages; second, it shares a great deal of linguistic and cultural features with other European languages. The EU integration language policies of Romania are backed by the intercultural identity which the language itself has acquired in time, due to diverse cultural and linguistic experiences. In a world of discourses, the role of educational systems is to promote the self – alterity dialogue taking language as a mediator.
I. LANDMARKS· Romanian is the most Oriental Romance language (Balkan-Romance group); it developed in isolation from Western Romance languages; it preserved Latin elements lost in other Romance languages; due to its special Latin structure and vocabulary it was metaphorically called “the 4th leg of the Romance table” (Alf Lombard) · Spoken by over 28,500,000 - 29,000,000 speakers: o Mother tongue for approx. 24,900,000 speakers: 20,500,000 speakers in Romania + 2,900,000 speakers in the Republic of Moldavia (officially called the Moldavian language) + 1,500,000 in the countries neighbouring Romania (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine) and communities of immigrants in the U.S.A., Canada, Latin America, Australia, Israel, Turkey and other European and Asian countries. · Romanian has 4 dialects (Daco-Romanian/ Romanian, Aromanian, Istro-Romanian, Megleno-Romanian); the Daco-Romanian/Romanian has 5 subdialects.
II. TYPOLOGY A. Historical perspective Romanian is a Neolatin language, descendant of the vulgar (popular) Latin. The history of the Romanian language reveals a special relationship between conservationism, language loyalty and vitality, a high degree of flexibility in contact with diverse cultures and languages.
This special relationship shaped the intercultural identity of the Romanian language: · Synthetic structure, which interferes with elements of analytism: Romanian has inherited the Latin morpho-syntactic structure; few non-Romance influences in the language structure (-o vocatives, the neuter gender, reflexives, subjunctive, etc.). · Composite vocabulary: Romanian shares a common vocabulary with many European languages: o Substratum: Thraco-Dacian (partly shared with Albanian) o Stratum: Latin (60% of the Romanian basic vocabulary) o Superstratum: Slavic (the influence of Old Slavic was compared to the Germanic superstratum in Western Romance languages). o Loanwords: § Until the beginning of the 19th c. — loanwords from non-Romance languages: South-Slavic languages, Hungarian, Turk, Greek § Starting the first half of the 19th c. — rapid and intense relatinization, modernization and westernization of the Romanian vocabulary (loanwords from French, scholar Latin, Italian — approx. 40% of the contemporary Romanian vocabulary; loanwords also from German, Russian, English) · Stylistic varieties: scientific, legal-administrative, journalistic, artistic · Pragmatic type: positive politeness, redundancy, vagueness of some terms, implicit information contextually recovered, indirectness, polemic and rhetoric drive · Spelling on phonetic basis with few exceptions
B. Present-day situation The present-day situation in Romanian has resulted from the interplay of complex psychosocial and cultural factors. In a way, it is similar to the situation in the 19th c. In the 19th c., after a long period of Turkish and Greek influences, the Romanian language re-linked to its Latin patterns. Today, the transition of the Romanian society from totalitarism (langue de bois, monologism, strict hierarchies and unidirectionality of the discourse) to an open society corresponds to a search for new social, cultural and linguistic patterns.
Here is an outline of the most important traces left by this process in language: · Dynamics of the vocabulary under the Anglo-Saxon influence, manifest also in many other languages; it results in the internationalization and intellectualization of the Romanian vocabulary · Massive loans and semantic extensions/restrictions from (American) English in the political/administrative/economic sciences, media, advertising, computers; loanwords used both in spoken and written language · Loanwords represent the basis for terminologies in new fields of activity, but they also entered in the active vocabulary of (more or less) educated people · Lexical creativity: the activation of some word formation processes, which have been less productive for decades (compound words, acronyms, some derivative prefixes and suffixes, international lexical formatives); new affixes in Romanian · A change in the distribution and frequency of some phonemes and strings of phonemes; new intonation patterns, in media especially (under the Anglo-Saxon influence) · Diversification of discourse types (use of both formal and colloquial styles in media; the neutralization of the distinction between functional loanwords and stylistic loanwords; linguistic snobbery) · Diversification in types of linguistic behavior
III. LANGUAGE POLICIESWe believe that the promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity in EU should rely on joint policies of self-affirmation and invitation.
A. Language ecology policies 1. The normative policies of the Romanian Academy (founded 1866) and the Romanian Institute of Linguistics “Iorgu Iordan”(founded 1949) a) Reforms of the Romanian orthography. Norms of the correct use. Standardization · In 1881 the Romanian Academy issued the first Linguistic Reform as a means of unification of the Romanian orthography, the foundation of a pan-Romanian culture (the first unifying Romanian grammar had appeared in 1828; the emergence of literary styles, 1860); normative activity conducted today by the Language Cultivation Board of the Romanian Academy (purpose: to record, describe, explain phenomena, and cautiously prescribe norms: “Language ecology today must not be driven by preconceived ideas and intolerance, purism and discriminations”, Mioara Avram) · Reforms of the Romanian Orthography: 1904, 1932, 1953 (supplemented, 1965), 1993. (Indreptar Ortografic, Ortoepic și de Punctuație (1953, 1956, 1960, 1965, 1971, 1983, 1997), Dictionar Ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române, DOOM, 1982) · The norms of the Romanian Orthography have continued the phonetic principle prescribed in 1881 and refined it with morphological, etymological, traditional-historical, symbolic principles (in different proportions). An example: statistics indicate that in Romanian 22% of Anglicisms are spelt and pronounced like English, 44% spelt the English way, but pronounced differently, 33% Romanian like spelling; 60% of the informants use the variant in DOOM, which prescribes the original pronunciation and spelling · The Romanian norms are considered slightly conservative, but far more permissive and innovative compared to the academic norms of other languages (i.e., French). · Romanian was characterized (Alf Lombard) as the language the least fixed (by prescriptive norms) compared to other Romance Languages: there are many variants in use, some of them accepted by the academic norms; inconsistency in choosing and applying principles to lexical units; instability; differences in prescribing the norm from one dictionary to another · International Standardization: in the present context of multilingualism and globalization, concern for standardization of terminologies in collaboration with EU countries (ASRO – The Romanian Association for Standardization; TermRom – The Romanian Association for Terminology, founded 1991; ANSTI — The National Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation has a data base of 60,000 entries; electronic thesaurus to define concepts according to EU practices — 44.000 concepts, 200,000 entries on August 1st, 1999)
b) Grammars: Normative and prescriptive Romanian Academic Grammars (The Academic Grammar of the Romanian Language, 1962/1966, Mioara Avram, Grammar for Everybody, 1986/1997)
c) Dictionaries: The Dictionary of the Romanian Academy, thesaurus with approx. 175,000 entries, The Explicative Dictionary, The New Explicative Dictionary, Dictionary of the Modern Romanian Language, etc., specialized dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, etc.
d) The Conferences of the Romanian Academy focus on the language structure and language evolution related to cultural and historical issues, bilateral cultural relationships, the theory of translation, terminologies, etc.
2.Educational policies The reform of the Romanian educational system, especially between 1997- 2000, has produced a visible change from an ethnocentric model of education to a more flexible one, opened to dialogue and negotiation of alternatives. This perspective enables students:
o o understand the Romanian culture and language against the background of linguistic and cultural diversity (cross-curricular and interdisciplinary activities are encouraged); transculturality and multiculturalism are promoted o to get acquainted with the common heritage of the European culture and democracy o to cope with global interdependencies The negotiations between Romania and the EU in the field of education started in February 2000 and were successfully completed in May 2000 (see the Agenda 2000 prepared by the EU based on the analysis performed in 1996 and 1997; the Reports prepared by the EU based on the analysis of 1998, 1999; OECD Report of October 9, 1998; the public address of the European Commissioner for Culture and Education in Bucharest on the occasion of the 4th Conference of the European Ministers of Education, June 18-20, 2000). The educational policies of Romania promote a modern perspective in the study of the Romanian language and literature and support language preservation and development in Romanian communities outside the borders of Romania.
a) The Romanian Language in schools and higher education in Romania (i) Schools · The New National Curriculum for the Romanian language, literature and communication (elaborated between 1999 - 2000 by the National Council for Curriculum, approved by the National Commission for the Romanian Language subordinated to the Ministry of Education and Research ): it integrates prescriptive aspects of language preservation with communication as skilled behavior and emphasizes the language – culture interrelation · Number of classes per week (Romanian literature, language, communication): 4-5 in lower secondary schools, 3 - 4 in high schools · New alternative textbooks for the Romanian language and literature: 31, according to the Catalogue of Alternative Textbooks, 2000 - 2001, issued by the Ministry of Education and Research (13 for the 5th - 8th grades; 5 for the 9th grade; 13 for the 10th grade; for the 11th and 12th grade, forthcoming) · New evaluation standards elaborated by The National Assessment and Examination Service ( founded in 1998 ) · Romanian language and literature as compulsory subjects for national exams (graduation exam from lower secondary school, graduation exam from high school) · Interrelated study of Romanian and foreign languages, grouped in the same curricular area “language and communication” (ii) Higher education · The Romanian language and literature as major and minor subjects in more than 30 state universities in Romania (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Craiova, Sibiu, Constanta, Brasov, Arad, Tirgu Mures, Galati, Pitesti, Ploiesti, Suceava, Bacau, Alba Iulia, Oradea) and in several private ones · Interrelated study of Romanian and foreign languages: the academic syllabus stipulates the choice of two compulsory subjects (Romanian, major; a foreign language, minor) · The Romanian language as compulsory examination subject for the admission to higher education institutions (Departments of Letters, Philology/Arts, Journalism, Theology & Letters, Law, Public Administration, Public Relations, European Cultural Studies, The Police Academy) · 7 Institutes and Research Centers for Linguistics ( including departments for Romanian studies): The Institute for Linguistics "Iorgu Iordan", Bucharest; The Institute for Phonetic and Dialectological Research "Al. Rosetti", Bucharest; The Institute for Linguistics and Literary Theory "Sextil Puscariu", Cluj-Napoca; The Institute for Romanian Philology "Al. Philippide", Iasi; The Institute for Socio-Human Research "C.S. Nicolaescu‑Plopsor", Craiova; The Institute for Socio-Human Research "Titu Maiorescu", Timisoara;The Romanian Language Institute, Bucharest.
b) Romanian minorities worldwide Romanian minorities are to be found in territories neighbouring Romania and in diaspora communities all over the world. The language spoken by the Romanian minorities from Bulgaria (Vidin area), Hungary (Bekes district), Ukraine (North Bucovina, Hertza region, South Bassarabia) and Yugoslavia (the Serbian Banat, Timoc area) shares many common features with the (Daco)Romanian subdialects. Some of these communities of Romanian origin are still claiming a full protection of their linguistic rights. Three other ethnic groups who speak dialects historically related to Romanian live in the Balkans: the Aromanians (approx. 400,000-600,000 speakers in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); the Megleno-Romanian (approx. 5,000 speakers in Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); the Istro-Romanian (1,5000 speakers in 2 small areas in the Istrian Peninsula, Croatia).
Romania promotes policies for language and cultural identity preservation of the Romanian communities living all over the world: · The “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi” Center for the Romanians all over the World (founded in 1998): o Offers about 400 scholarships per year in Romania for Romanian minorities (especially from Ukraine) and tuition for the preparatory academic year; future enlargement perspectives for the Romanian minorities from Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia o Organizes training and refresher courses for teachers of the Romanian minorities o The “Romanian School” Programme: school exchanges, books donations, etc. o The ARC Programme: summer camps for children coming from Romanian minority communities. · School and academic exchanges, especially with the Republic of Moldavia (over 10 billion lei / 5 million USD per year) · Joint curricula and joint research programmes of Romanian and Moldavian universities and language research institutes (e.g., The Syntactic Dictionary of the Romanian Language, The Derivative Dictionary of the Romanian Language, Handbook to Romanian, The Common Usage Dictionary of the Romanian Language, Patrom — The International Dictionary of Anthroponyms) · The first Romanian school and university extensions through franchising in the Republic of Moldavia (in 2000): ex. in Balti, in Cahul with the support of the University “Dunarea de Jos” Galati · Several rounds of negotiations (in 1999-2000) with the authorities of Ukraine, Austria and Israel for organizing a multicultural university in Chernovtsy /Cernauti (Ukrainian, German, Hebrew, Romanian lines of study), not yet implemented · Studies on the Romanian language spoken by the Romanian minorities: Romanian Subdialects from Basarabia, Transnistria, North Bucovina, and North Maramureș. Texts and Glossary (2000); The Romanian Language in the Timoc Valley, by Virgil Nistorescu (2000); Dialectological Studies on the Romanian Communities in Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Albania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, coordinated by “The Institute for Phonetics and Dialectological Research” in Bucharest, in progress
3. Media & cultural policies Concern for preserving language norms, in the context of the accelerated rate of language change / innovation: · Radio & TV language programmes (approx. 260 minutes per week on national channels): o “Vorba dulce româneascã”, 30 min./5 days per week on România Cultural o “Ghid radiofonic de exprimare corectã”, 3 min./ 5 days per week on România Actualitãți o “Ghid radiofonic de exprimare corectã”, 3 min./ 5 days per week on România Tineret o “Odã limbii române”, 30 min./ once a week on România Cultural o “Corect”, 10 min./ 5 days per week on TVR 1 (National TV Channel of Romania) · Articles and studies dedicated to the Romanian language published by linguists, writers, literary critics, etc. in linguistic journals (Limba Românã, Studii și cecetãri lingvistice, Revue roumaine de linguistique, Limbã si literaturã, Dacoromania, a.o.), and in the daily / weekly press: after 1995, approx. 500-1000 articles per year (according to BLR / Romanian Linguistics Bibliography) · Books on the Romanian language published between 1998-2000: 50 in Romania, 7 in other countries · Romanian on the web: at www. unilat.work/dpel/ro/index/htm, one can find the Romanian Language Bulletin, which offers various information about the study and the promotion of the Romanian language in Romania and abroad.
B. Policies for promoting linguistic and cultural diversity In a world of globalized values, languages, as culture mediators, facilitate human contacts and acceptance of differences. Because foreign languages proficiency is a key instrument for the common understanding between the citizens of Europe, as well as a basic quality indicator in education (according to the Report of the European Commission on Quality of School Education, May, 2000), Romania has constantly promoted international foreign languages classes in schools and universities. The study of less widely spoken languages is also encouraged.
1. Study of the European languages in the Romanian educational system. Media and translations. · Foreign languages & cultures in schools: focus on communication / conversational skills, language-mentality interconnections, modern teaching techniques o Early study of the 1st foreign language: starting the 2nd grade o The study of the second foreign language: starting the 6th grade o The study of the third foreign language: optional in high schools o Number of classes per week: 2-4 or more, depending on the profile of study (sciences /humanities), and type of tuition (normal, intensive, bilingual) o Special programmes for extending German studies, following the Romanian cultural tradition (new centers in Constanta, Craiova, Suceava, the foundation of a second German high school in Bucharest “Alexandru Vlahuțã”, founded 2000, etc.) o New alternative textbooks (some elaborated in collaboration with foreign specialists houses): 12 for the 5th-8th grades/ per language; English 23 for the 9th grade and 23 for the 10th grade; Russian 3 for the 9th grade; German 6 for the 9th grade and 9 for the 10th grade;French 6 for the 9th grade and 13 for the 10th grade; Spanish 2 for the 10th grade; the textbooks for the 11th and 12th grades, forthcoming. o Excellent results of Romanian school students in international foreign languages contests: 1st prize in the International Public Speaking Competition won by Adriana Ionascu from Romania (in 1998); 1st prize , 2nd prize and special mention in the German language Olympics (in 2000) o The foundation of regional centers for documentation in European cultural issues (in 2000) o The Regional Center of Francophony founded in Arcalia, Bistrita, in collaboration with France o The Romanian teaching staff is part of ESU (The English-Speaking Union) o Participation of Romanian teachers in European programmes for language training and refresher courses: the foundation in 1998 of the National Agency Socrates ( the 2nd stage of the Socrates programmes started in June 2000) favours transnational contacts, linguistic and cultural diversity, and joint educational projects; Lingua Programme: 52 projects and 34 preparatory visits between 1997-1999 · Foreign languages & cultures in Romanian universities: o Studied in over 30 state universities in Romania and in several private ones o Foreign languages are compulsory examination subjects for the admission to departments, such as: Letters, Philology, Theology, Political Sciences, Public Relations, etc. o Foreign languages as majors or minors: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish o Majors only: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Turkish, Ukrainian o Minors only: Dutch, Swedish o Optional: Catalan, Finish, Flemish (University of Sibiu), Modern Greek, a.o. o The extension of technical, medical, economic, legal studies, etc. in foreign languages in the most important Romanian universities (future mobilities of specialists in the EU are encouraged) o The foundation and extension of cultural European studies departments in Romanian universities (access to the common heritage of European history and culture is encouraged) o Language teaching centers, cultural and excellence research centers for foreign language studies in the main Romanian state universities: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Sibiu, Constanta (for the Balkan languages), Craiova, a.o. o Participation of students and teaching staff in European academic mobilities programmes (ERASMUS), between 1997-1999 ( according to the Study on the Impact of Socrates Programme in Romania, June 2000) : § TS ( teaching staff for joint curricular activities): 110 persons involved ( in Philology) § ILC (integrated language courses): 6 persons involved § Philology students mobilities: 140 persons involved ( out of 1250 in all fields of study), including the pilot project ILPC (Intensive language preparatory courses for learning less widely spoken European languages) o Participation of Romania (since 1999) in the project “The Academy of Latinity network”, initiated by France with a view to promoting Romance languages and cultures in the world · Foreign languages in the media. Programmes for professional translators: o Foreign languages lessons: on the National TV Channel, TVR 1 (daily) o Broad access to TV cable (direct access to foreign languages) o Subtitled films (direct access to the original language) o Programmes for professional translators’ formation: TEMPUS JEP 3181 (Joint European Project on the recommendation of the Council of Europe, 1992, to form professional translators and interpreters); special departments for translators and interpreters in Romanian universities
2. The protection of the linguistic rights of the national minorities in Romania 18 officially recognized national minorities ( Census of January 7, 1992) live in Romania: Hungarians 1,624,959, Rromas (Gypsies) 401,087, Germans 119,462, Ukrainians 65,764, Lippovan Russians 38,606, Turks 29,832, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes 33,493, Tartars 24,596, Slovaks 19,594, Bulgarians 9,851, Jewish 8,955, Czechs 5,797, Poles 4,232, Greeks 3,940, Armenians 1,957, other nationalities 8,602, unstated ethnic descent 766. Romania’s official language policies protect the right of national minorities to be regarded as language communities, the right to use one’s own language both in private and in public, the right to use one’s own name, the right of ethnic communities for their own language and culture to be taught, access to cultural services and communication media, the right to receive attention in one’s own mother tongue from government bodies and in socioeconomic relations, a.o.
· Educational policies for the protection of national minorities: o The educational system for minorities represents 10.01 % of the Romanian educational system o The school network for national minorities ( % of the Romanian educational system): Pre-school units:10.3 %; Primary school units and sections: 8.87 %; Middle school units and sections: 9.98 %; Secondary school units and sections: 12 %; Vocational school units and sections: 10.3 %; Students in 1999/2000 academic year: 5.1 %;Teaching staff: 4.86 % o Pre-university school network for minorities by language of tuition in 1999/2000 school year: Hungarian school units and sections: 8.7 %; German 1 %; Ukrainian 0.06 %; Serbian 0.1 %; Slovak 0.1 %; Czech 0.02 %; Croatian 0.01 % a.o. o Number of students enrolled in the 1999/2000 academic year in state and private universities: 5.1 % ( Hungarians 19,654, Germans 1,693, other minorities 1,899) o Universities: § The multicultural University “Babes-Bolyai” in Cluj- Napoca with 3 lines of study: Hungarian (13 Depts.), German (12 Depts.), Romanian; multilingual university colleges in Sf. Gheorghe, Gheorghieni, Satu Mare § Another 10 state universities have separate sections for minorities: Bucharest (3) , Tirgu Mures (2), Timisoara (3), Suceava, Constanța o Recent progress in extending the school network for national minorities: The Bulgarian College in Bucharest (founded in 2000) o The diversification of levels of tuition: tuition in the mother tongue, tuition partially in the mother tongue, tuition in Romanian with the study of the mother tongue by request o Programmes for textbook elaboration: translated from Romanian or elaborated in collaboration with specialists from mother tongue countries of the minorities o The training of the teaching staff and refresher courses: The creation of the network of colleges for teaching staff formation in Sibiu, Timisoara, Brasov, Constanta, Cluj-Napoca, Suceava, Mediaș (The German Center for Life-long Learning) o Special programmes for Rroma communities: § Positive discrimination of Rromas programmes meant to facilitate a broader access to education (1998-2000): different conditions for admission in schools and universities (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara, Craiova, Brasov, Constanta, Oradea, Suceava) § Appointment of territorial school inspectors of Rroma origin § Teaching staff training programmes § Elaboration of curricula and textbooks for Rromas § Rromani language courses in 26 Romanian districts (out of 40), such as: Mures, Dolj, Iasi, Bacau, Timis, Olt, Hunedoara, Arad, a.o., and at the University of Bucharest § Second chance programmes for Rromas who have abandoned the educational system · Cultural and media policies for the protection of national minorities: o The “Proetnicultura” National Programme of the Ministry of Culture ( 358 projects/activities between 1997-2000): promotes the culture and traditions of national minorities, the development of mother tongue abilities (language camps, literature contests, theatre performances in Hungarian, German, Hebrew a.o. in Bucharest, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Tirgu Mures) o A programme of the Ministry of Culture finances the written culture of the minorities: 486,000,000 lei in 2000 o Programmes for minorities in the media: Radio Antena Bucurestilor: 1 hour Hungarian, 1 hour German/ daily; Regional Radio studios: 2-3 hours/daily according to the ethnic specificity of the area; TVR 1 (The National TV Channel of Romania): 330 minutes/per week for all minorities (150 minutes in Hungarian, 90 minutes in German); Regional TV studios in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara
3. Romanian as a foreign language · 71 Romanian language and culture Departments in European universities: in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, a.o.; courses in Romanian language and culture as major and minor subjects · 6 Romanian cultural centers in Europe: in Antwerpen/Anvers (Belgium), Berlin (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), Paris (France), Rome (Italy), Venice (Italy), Vienna (Austria); promote the Romanian language and culture abroad · The Institute for the Romanian Language (founded in 1999) encourages the study of Romanian as a foreign language and offers financial support; assists Romanian universities to elaborate language courses and teaching materials; organizes language courses, by request, issues official language certificates, collaborates with the Romanian Language Departments and Cultural Centers in the world, coordinates international cooperation programmes · The Romanian Cultural Foundation (founded in 1990) has among other objectives: to promote the Romanian language and cultural values all over the world; to mediate contacts among Romanian persons and institutions, on one hand, and persons and institutions abroad, on the other hand; to organize international seminars and congresses on the Romanian language and culture: Romanian Culture in the Universities of the World (Sibiu, 1996); Romanian Culture in the Contemporary World (1998); Latinity: The Future of the Past (1999); Romanians and the Culture of Europe (Sinaia, 2000), a.o. · Romanian Summer Courses (beginners, intermediate, advanced) are organized by: University of Bucharest, University “Babeș-Bolyai“ in Cluj-Napoca, West University of Timisoara, Romanian Cultural Foundation, a.o.
IV. CONCLUSIONS: Romanian and the EU integration Due to its performative potential, language constructs the social, institutional reality (Searle:1995). As linguists, we believe that human communities can be better understood as discursive phenomena yield by Language; since communication is inherently differential, ideologically produced differences within communities should be the base for the communitarian dialogue and negotiations. As professors, we believe that communitarian institutions and the intercultural identities they need (assumed or claimed, not assigned by stereotypes and generalizations) can be shaped within the educational process; the educational discourse should favour cultural and linguistic differences as a base for dialogue and negotiation, and build a sense of commonalty, where degree of sameness arises from shared mediators. As linguists and professors we teach our students that Language is a mediator in a world of discourses where today’s cultural other is tomorrow’s partner in dialogue. As aspirants to the European citizenship, we believe that plurilingualism is an important pathway to an effective political, social, economic and cultural integration in the EU.
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Martie 2001 Oana Chelaru Murăruș noas@pcnet.ro Andra Vasilescu v_andra@pcnet.ro
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