Interview with Professor Vasile Bahnaru, director of the Institute of Philology of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova.
Vasile Bahnaru:“Given that any communication can take place in a number of stylistic registers, I will try, depending on the nature of questions, to make use of different registers. In other words, I will be sober and lacunose, as in the definitions of academic grammar, or lucid and slightly bantering when the context requires this, satisfied or favorable when ascertaining not only a correct, but also expressive way of expression. As “Verba volant, scripta manent” or “Spoken words fly away, written words remain”, we will immediately start to formulate the necessary answers”.
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– Besides other symbols of a state, the LANGUAGE is a fundamental component of it, which is designed to unite society. How would you ‘diagnose’ the state of the Romanian language in our country after 25 years of independence and how does it work in our society?
– Evidently, the language is not only a complex or difficult problem. It is also a fundamental, primordial problem. For the Romanian language to function normally in the ex-Soviet area, a set of actions are needed at organizational and institutional levels given that the Soviet regime did incommensurable damage not only to the functional configuration of the Romanian language in the Sovietized Bessarabia, but also to its internal structure (phonetic, lexical, grammatical systems and even the stylistics of language units). The language is an indispensable fundamental symbol of the cultural heritage in a state because the states were principally built based on the language community. In other words, the traditions and culture of the people are fundamental constituent elements of a state, while the other symbols of the state (emblem, flag, anthem, awards, currency, etc.) are derivatives whose chronological succession is subsequent to the language. Consequently, the language is of decisive importance, even defining importance for the existence of the state because it is the social link and it embodies and expresses all the aspects, cultural quintessence of the people, which is formed of the ensemble of tangible and nontangible assets, of the ordinary perceptions and millenary traditions of the national majority. It is thus incontestable that the language is the main constitutive element of a state and of the culture of a people.
For the Romanians, the language has a decisive importance in the process of establishing national unity because, as Neagu Djuvara stated, “we are possibly the only people in Europe, besides the small countries and peoples, whose national sentiment is based exclusively on the fact that we speak the same language, from the Nistru up to the Tisa”. This does not refer to the countries where the national sentiment has been built during centuries, step by step, around a common history. In our country, the cement is the language.
As regards the development prospects of the Romanian language in the Republic of Moldova, I consider it develops and functions in yet insufficient conditions (not to say unfavorable), even if during the 25 years of independence, it extended incontestably the functioning areas, increased the number of speakers of Romanian, including based on Russian-language speakers, the expression method (oral and written) evidently improved and the area of communication in the Romanian language was enlarged (public sphere, social communication, the mass media etc.).
To improve the linguistic situation in the Republic of Moldova, which is to reconstitute a social framework for the normal functioning of the Romanian language, a broad project of scientific actions is needed to identify the causes that led to such a deplorable situation, to popularize, explain and promote the national Romanian spirituality.
First of all, it is absolutely necessary for our intellectuality to initiate a complex program for recovering the national identity of the Bessarabian Romanians. As the Bessarabians (except for those from the three southern counties – Cahul, Ismail and Belgrade) didn’t take part in the Union of 1859 and in the creation of the unitary Romanian state, only an insignificant part of the Bessarabian intellectuality (except for the Russified ones) consider that they belong to the Romanian nation.
– What are the philologist-scientists of the Academy preoccupied with now? What is the relation between the theoretical and practical aspects of scientific elaborations?
– The research projects on which employees of the Institute of Philology work now are the following: 1. Evolution of the Romanian literature, folklore and theory of literature in European and universal context (implementation period 2015-2018). Academician Mihai Cimpoi is the project’s director. 2. Topical directions in the study of the Romanian language (implementation period 2015-2018). The project is directed by Doctor Ion Barbuta. 3. Portal of linguistic resources for the Romanian language (implementation period 2015-2018). Doctor Habilitate Inga Druta is the project’s director. The first project refers to the literature, folklore and theory of literature, while the other two to linguistics. The first is rather theoretical and applicative in character, while the second has a mainly applicative orientation.
Special attention is paid to the studying of the influence of the English language on the Romanian language in the Republic of Moldova and Romania so as to identify the identity in diversity. In fact, our research projects are in perfect concordance with the Government’s working program for 2015-2018 concerning the promotion of interdisciplinary research aimed at dealing with societal challenges (safeguarding of cultural heritage and identity, increase in the quality of life and life expectancy, conservation of biodiversity and ecological security, generation of cognition, implementation of innovations and technology transfer) with state budget money and foreign funds.
Finally, in parallel with the institutional projects, a series of doctorate theses are being elaborated on theoretical problems (variability in language, functional language styles, pragmatic values of the language, history of the language, etymology, etc.).
The researches to cultivate the language in the process of globalization and multiculturalism also do not lack interest. In this case, it is not only about the invasion of Englezisms (lexical items, expressions etc.), but also about the perpetuation of deviations from the norm inherited from the Soviet period. If the generation older than 40, which continues to use calques from Russian when there are traditional Romanian equivalents, can be explained by the influence of the Russian language, the perpetuation of these deviations in the language of young people is less explicable.
– We, the journalists, daily use dictionaries to clarify controversial aspects in the Romanian language. How often do the philologists need to use the dictionary?
– Evidently, the journalistic activity necessitates swiftness and the authors are thus unable to always look for information, counting most of the times on the knowledge accumulated earlier. But when the journalists must produce a well-grounded and linguistically correct article, they are obliged, in virtue of the profession, to use dictionaries and grammar books. It should be noted that the explicative dictionaries contain not only information about the meaning of lexical items, but also ortoepic (pronunciation, stress), grammatical (declination, conjugation, plural, feminine, genitive-dative forms, etc.) and stylistic (literary, scientific, regional, archaic, neology, argotic, indecent etc.,), information. This enables the dictionary users to learn how to correctly use lexical items and how to correctly build sentences.
It would be an irreparable mistake to consider that the philologists in general and linguists in particular do not need to use dictionaries to convince themselves of something. Moreover, the more you know, the greater are the doubts and thus you need to consult a dictionary when you have to formulate a particular verdict on issues related to language correctness.
– How do you assess the quality of our dictionaries? What a person (who does not have philological studies) should do when particular aspects cannot be found in them?
– French lexicographers say sententiously that the use of the worst dictionary is yet better than the non-use of a dictionary. Therefore, we can say that any dictionary is useful, depending on its purpose, type and volume. Usually, the ordinary users of dictionaries make use of general explicative dictionaries that are sold in bookstores (DEX; DEXI). These are appropriate for a person with a sufficiently advanced level of culture. When the looked for lexical item is not found in the dictionary, there are two possibilities: 1) the given word does not exist in the Romanian language or is a special term and thus should be looked up in a special dictionary and 2) the word should be looked up in an ordinary bilingual dictionary or polyglot dictionary of terms, either economic or financial-banking ones (for example, Russian-Romanian). Consequently, there are no situations without solutions, but there is incurable indolence and unwillingness to make a minimum effort to find the necessary information.
– Do our citizens come with such questions to the Institute of Philology? What other aspects are they concerned about? How do you answer to them?
– Not only private individuals come to us, but also legal entities and the questions of the latter are much more complex. But, thank God, we have a language service at the Terminological Center (managed by Doctor Habilitate Inga Druta), which is available to everyone!
– Can you please formulate a message for the readers of IPN News Agency
– What can I wish the readers and employees of IPN News Agency? With the risk of being banal, I wish you first of all health and, secondly, good luck, happiness and success in what you do! For the happiness to be complete, I wish you wisdom, love for our Romanian nation and pious attitude to our ancestors, our old traditions and our Romanian language as we are all what we are only through the mother tongue. We should recognize our native language and study it so as to be able to express all the range of mental and spiritual feelings. Charles the Great said the language for the people is not a simple way of communicating, but a decisive factor that makes them human. Furthermore, I wish the journalists honesty, dignity, firmness, verticality and loyalty to the professional deontology. I also wish you decent living in a state where there is no corruption, thieves, hypocrites and loafers. If we do not manage to build such a state, we should make effort to reunify the country as soon as possible!
Happy holidays!
