“Diacronia” bibliometric database (BDD)
Title:

Scri(re) „scrie(re)”

Author:
Publication: Anuar de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară, XXXII, Section Dialectologie, p. 119
p-ISSN:0066-4987
Publisher:Editura Academiei
Place:Iași
Year:
Abstract:The present paper deals with the forms of the 4th conjugation that the verb a scríe „to write” (Lat. scribĕre) of the 3rd conjugation has acquired by analogy, beginning with the 18th century. The process is restricted to the Daco-Romanian and Aromanian dialects, since in the Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian dialects Lat. scribĕre was dropped and, in its place, pisăi̯és of Bulgarian, maybe also of Macedonian origin, is used and pisęi̯ of Croatian origin, respectively.
The research is based on documents, old and new texts, dictionaries etc., and, especially, on the material collected by inquiries for Noul Atlas lingvistic român, pe regiuni (= NALR). Likewise, for the Aromanian dialect, there has been used the information offered by Ioan Cutova and Nicolae Saramandu.
The wealth of the material collected for NALR proves that the verb a scri, considered by researchers to be a regionalism of Muntenia, an element that is characteristic of uneducated speech, a folk element, a peculiarity of the Southern Daco-Romanian local dialects, or of those in Moldavia; it has also been regarded as a variant of a scrie which is characteristic of the Southern Daco-Romanian local dialects (we refer to Oltenia, Muntenia, Dobrogea), and of those in Moldavia (Bucovina is counted out), to which we way add the local dialects in the Covasna district, lying in the South-East of Transylvania.
The statistics drawn out after counting all occurrences of the 4th conjugation (scrim, scriți, nu scri! etc.) show that there is no reasonable proof in favour of the prevalence of a specific area from this viewpoint.
In documents and other texts a scri can be found starting with the 18th century, but there are but few attestations. The first attestations this paper records are to be found in three documents concerning agrarian relations, two in Iași, in 1702 and 1705-1706, and the third in Bucharest, in 1714. The oldest attestation recorded in the card index for Dicționarul limbii române (Serie nouă) is taken from a text printed in 1794, at Sibiu. But since, according to the information given by NALR, a scri is not characteristic of the Sibiu local dialects, the appearance of this form in the above mentioned printed matter, as well as later on in G. Barițiu and M. Beniuc, should be attributed to the influence of other texts or local dialects.
The verb a scri occurs frequently in texts from Muntenia, then in several texts from Moldavia, in the 19th century, and mainly in its early decades.
After 1840 occurences of this verb are fewer and fewer, even with scholars that made extensive use of it before (Ion Heliade Rădulescu, C. Negruzzi). It is not to be found at all with scholars and writers of the 19th century (I. Maiorescu, M. Eminescu), while with others (A. Philippide) it is more frequent than a scríe.
In the 20th century a scri continued to be employed by writers, coming to be more and more used in the writings of writers from Moldavia, who continued to be, as in the preceding century, more true, in this respect, to traditional and literary norms than to those of Muntenia. Worthy of attention are T. Arghezi, among writers of Muntenia, and the „Junimist” Gh. Panu among Moldavian writers. Forms of the 4th conjugation occur in the works of several other writers such as: I. Minulescu, C. Sandu-Aldea, V. Voiculescu, Geo Bogza, then Cezar Petrescu, C. Hogaș, M. Sadoveanu, G. Lesnea etc.
The penetration of a scri into literary texts has, therefore, been determined by its being used by several writers from Muntenia and Moldavia (and not only, as it was stated by T. Arghezi), writers who took it, independently, from the local dialects. As a consequence, the pressure upon the literary language was exercised on a large scale, but the latter did not assimilate the 4th conjugation form.
If scria(re) of the 1st conjugation, studied by the author in a previous paper, is, with both the Aromanians and the Daco-Romanians, very old, probably dating from as early as the common period of the Romanian dialects, scrí(re) is, in both dialects, relatively new, a fact proved by attestations in texts and by the distribution of its forms in local dialects.
The appearance of a scri (scríre) is due to analogy with other verbs of the 4th conjugation, mainly with a ști “to know” (știu-scriu, știi-scrii, știe-scrie, știm-scrim etc.). Perhaps the plural forms were used at first (scrim, scriți, nu scriți!), and then it might have come to a scri (scríre), nu scri! As a matter of fact, NALR shows that, to this day, the number of plural forms of the 4th conjugation is somewhat larger over the entire area than that of the singular forms (the negative Imperative is taken into consideration).
In the Aromanian dialect the 4th conjugation forms have been brought about by both știu, etc., and γrăpsíre “writing”, γrăpséscu “I write”, γrăpsíi “I wrote”, γrăpsít “written” (cf. scríre, scriéscru, scríi, scrií). The forms of γrăpséscu, a verb of Greek origin, appeared, in their turn, after the model of other verbs such as algescu “to whiten”, grėscu “to speak”.
Scrim, scriți cannot originate in scríim, scríiți by contracting the two i's since the raising of e in this context (scríem; scríeți) is not, and was not in the past, characteristic of the Muntenian area and, therefore, we cannot admit that a scri may have appeared at one time by analogy with other verbs (in the Muntenian subdialect), and at some other time through ii > i (in the Moldavian local dialects).
The transfer of a scríe to the 4th conjugation being a late one, the Infinitive scríre with the Aromanians and in several Daco-Romanian local dialects (see here the Imperative nu scríreți!) is, despite its archaic form, new and it appeared in an analogous way. In the area where nu scríreți was remarked (Oltenia) people also say nu dormíreți!, nu béreți!, etc., their long Infinitives being inherited from Latin.
One can also notice a tendency towards coining a new 4th conjugation form with the Daco-Romanians, a scrií, by analogy with verbs in -ií (a se sfií, a pustií etc.).
As far as Bucovina is concerned, it does not belong to the area of a scri but to that of a scrie. The Bucovina local dialects are, in this respect, a continuation of the Maramureș-Transylvanian area, the only difference consisting in the stress, scriém, scriéți, which is certainly a more recent peculiarity in Bucovina.
A scri should, therefore, be considered a regional variant of a scríe. As a matter of fact, the Spelling Dictionaries of our century recommend only the use of a scríe.
Language: Romanian
Links:  

Citations to this publication: 0

References in this publication: 0

The citations/references list is based on indexed publications only, and may therefore be incomplete.
For any and all inquiries related to the database, please contact us at [Please enable javascript to view.].

Preview: