Romanian Orthography – Transylvanian Scholars’ Constant Concern between 1691–1830
In a 139-year interval, over 80 works intended for training Romanian writing were printed in typographical centres of the Habsburg Empire. They had both certain and uncertain existence. Two of them are analyzed at length in the present communication Ortografie sau scrisoare dreaptă pentru folosul şcoalelor neamniceşti (Viena, 1784) [Ortography or Accurate Writing for the Benefit of People’s Schools (Vienna, 1784)] and Orthoepia Latina, LatinoValachica, Hungarica, Germanica, et Serbo-Valachica (Sibiu, 1826). The former formulates writing principles and simplifies the Cyrillic alphabet, in a period when there were no rules for the use of the Cyrillic alphabet in written Romanian. People used to write ”as it was accustomed”. The importance of the latter work resides in the fact that it describes Romanians’ engagement in a real cultural dialogue. Hence, Nicolae Maniu Montan’s attempt to achieve an educational work meant to teach Orthoepy, Graphics and Orthography in Latin, Romanian (with Latin and Cyrillic letters), German and Hungarian.
Keywords: Orthography, Graphics, Orthoepy, Spelling Book, ABC, Alphabet, primer, Latin letters, Cyrillic letters.
