Satam &
Centum

Allan Bomhard’s review of Vinereanu’s
Etymological Dictionary of the
Romanian Language.

An American Linguist on a Romanian Linguist: Bomhard on Vinereanu. KIMI V4.0 → DeepSeek V5.1 → Grok V6.1 → Key takeaways → Vinereanu’s work marks a significant advancement in Romanian lexicography. The dictionary follows a standardized format for etymological entries. It asserts that Thraco-Dacian languages were centum, aligning closely with Celtic and Italic. The entries include reconstructed Indo-European proto-forms when applicable. Vinereanu’s Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language serves as a model for future etymological dictionaries.

The book reviewed here is the second, revised and expanded edition of Vinereanu’s Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language, based on his Indo-European studies (Bucharest, 2008, 2023). The new edition has been greatly expanded from one to two volumes. Both the earlier edition and the new one are written exclusively in Romanian. Nevertheless, the author is preparing an English-language version of the new edition. Although the English version is still a work in progress, I had the privilege of seeing the parts of the English edition that are largely completed.

Rather than evaluating individual etymologies, I would like to approach the book in this review from an Indo-European perspective. This essentially means taking a critical look at the theoretical assumptions (i.e., the methodology) underlying Vinereanu’s work and the results he obtains in two main areas through the application of those assumptions:

(1) in addition to evaluating what Vinereanu’s work adds to our knowledge of Romanian etymology in general, which is of particular interest to me (2) what this dictionary can tell us about Dacian and Thracian (especially Dacian), that is, about two extremely poorly documented Indo-European languages spoken in the Balkans in antiquity. Dacian was spoken roughly in what is today modern Romania, while Thracian was spoken in what is approximately present-day Bulgaria (cf. the map given in Duridanov 1985:149).

Vinereanu begins the dictionary with a fairly long Introduction (Argument, pp. 9–124), in which he discusses in detail the methodology underlying the individual etymologies that make up most of the work — the remainder of the dictionary (both volumes) is dedicated to those etymologies. I will begin by offering a very brief summary of the essential features of Vinereanu’s methodology and will comment on it.

Vinereanu shows that approximately 86% of the Romanian lexicon has no cognates in other Romance languages. He therefore argues that most of this 86%, namely the part that is not due to more recent borrowings from languages such as Turkish or the South Slavic languages, for example, is most likely derived from Thracian and Dacian (referred to hereafter as Thraco-Dacian), the pre-Roman indigenous languages spoken in the Balkans, as mentioned above.

To support this, Vinereanu compares the Romanian lexicon of unknown origin (the 86% mentioned above) with other non-Romance Indo-European languages. If he finds a match, he considers this evidence that the item in question is ultimately of Indo-European origin and may be attributed to Thraco-Dacian. The method appears to work quite well, and Vinereanu is able to provide reasonable etymologies for a good portion of the Romanian lexicon previously considered to be of unknown origin.

This is a major improvement over the work of his predecessors (Brâncuș, Candrea–Densusianu, Cihac, Ciorănescu, Hasdeu, etc.). It is worth noting here that Vinereanu is not the first to attempt to demonstrate the Thraco-Dacian origin of the unknown elements of Romanian vocabulary: the efforts of Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu at the end of the 19th century (Hasdeu 1887–98) are especially noteworthy.

Following his study, Vinereanu demonstrates that Thracian and Dacian were most likely centum languages and not satǝm languages as previously believed (cf. Dečev 1960; Duridanov 1985 and 2011; Georgiev 1983; and Yanakieva 2018), and that they were closely related to the Celtic and Italic languages. Vinereanu devotes a later work (Vinereanu 2023) to further developing these views.

I would also like to say a few words about the structure of the individual etymologies in the dictionary, insofar as they follow a standard format. Each entry begins with a main word followed by its definition. References are then made to relevant literature on the respective Romanian etymology. If the word is of Indo-European origin, the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form is provided.

The entry ends with a list of related and/or derived Romanian forms. Where relevant, the final statement is “origin: Thraco-Dacian.” Moreover, the forthcoming English translation is even more meticulous. In conclusion, Vinereanu’s Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language is a monumental achievement and can serve as a model for how an etymological dictionary should be written. Allan Bomhard

The AI Architecture of Blindness

References:

R.I.P. ✟ Mihai Vinereanu Dicţionarul Etimologic al Limbii Române [Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language]. Revised and Expanded Edition. Bucharest: Editura URANUS, 2023. Two volumes. Vol. 1, 808 pp., vol. 2, 781 pp. ISBN: vol. 1: 978-606-699-039-4, vol. 2: 978-606-699-040-0. Brâncuş, Grigore, 1983, Vocabularul autohton al limbii române [The Indigenous Vocabulary of Romanian], Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică Enciclopedică. Candrea, Ion-Aurel & Ovid Densusianu, 1907–14, Dicţionarul etimologic al limbii romîne: Elementele latine [Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language: Latin Elements], Bucureşti: Librăria Socec. Cihac, Alexandre de, 1870/1879, Dictionnaire d’étymologie daco-romaine. Frankfort: Ludolphe St-Goar. Cioranescu, Alexandru, 1958–59, Diccionario etimológico rumano, Madrid: Editorial Gredos. Dečev, Dimităr, 1960, “Characteristics of the Thracian Language,” Linguistique balkanique 2:146–213. Densusianu, Ovid, 1902, Histoire de la langue roumaine: Tome premier, les origines, Paris: Ernest Leroux. Duridanov, Ivan, 1985, 2011, Die Sprache der Thraker [The Language of the Thracians]. Georgiev, Vladimir I., 1983, Book Review “Thracian and Dacian,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II.29.2:1148–1194.

Hasdeu, Bogdan Petriceicu, 1887–98, Etymologicum magnum Romaniae, Bucureşti. Paliga, Sorin, 2006, Etymological Lexicon of the Indigenous (Thracian) Elements in Romanian, Bucharest. Vinereanu, Mihai, 2008, Dicţionar Etimologic al Limbii Române, Bucureşti. Vinereanu, Mihai, “On the Centum Features of Thraco-Dacian Language”. Yanakieva, Svetlana, 201[?], “The Thracian Language,” Orpheus 25:26–68.