Language/Literature paper by Zsemlyei, Borbála
Hungarian-Romanian Cultural Relations as Reflected by Old Hungarian Language Use in Transylvania (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
It is a well-known fact that there has always been a very intense cultural relation between Hungarians and Romanians living in Transylvania. The imprints of these cultural relations can be found in both languages in the sense that Romanian dialects In Transylvania have numerous Hungarian elements, and vice versa.This paper presents this subject from a historic perspective. The source of the research is the Historical Dictionary of the Hungarian Language in Transylvania, which is the complete thesaurus of old Hungarian language use in Transylvania of the period between the 15th and 19th centuries.
The hypothesis of the paper is that the Romanian influence was quite strong in the above-mentioned period, thus there must be many words of Romanian origin in the Historical Dictionary. These words can be grouped based on which area of everyday-life received the most impact from the Romanian culture: gastronomy, clothing, traditions/superstitions, religion etc. In conclusion the aim of the paper is to present how language can reflect the cultural influence of one nation on another one.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
I graduated from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj in 2000. For two years I worked at Brassai Samuel Highschool as teacher of English and Hungarian. Since 2002 I have been working at the Department of Hungarian and General Linguistics of Babes-Bolyai University first as assistant lecturer, then as lecturer. I obtained my PhD degree in 2007. I teach the following disciplines: historical linguistics, morphology, syntax, pragmatics. My research is focused on the Hungarian language use in Transylvania between the 15th and 19th centuries. This interest is closely related to the fact that I was a member of the editorial team of the Historical Dictionary of the Hungarian Language in Transylvania.