Establishment of the Linguistic Study Methodology

a) Elaboration of norms and models for the linguistic analysis
Dr. Eugenia Dima has gone through several Cyrillic character manuscripts in order to study them from a linguistic and philological viewpoint (aprox. 4.700 pages): Antonio Catiforo, Vita di Pietro il Grande , translation by Matei Fărcăşanu, Viaţa lui Petru, ms. 2353 BAR, copy of 1755, Charles Rollin, Histoire ancienne Tom I, Istoria veche, translation by Costandin Cocorăscu, ms. 5846 BAR of 1768, Joseph Delaporte, Le voyageur francaise, translation tome I-IV by Mihai Cantacuzino, A toată lumea călătorie, 1780-1786, ms. 1376 BAR, IV-18 BCU Iaşi, Imberie şi Margarona, translation of around 1780 by an unknown scholar, ms. 1817 BAR,; translations carried out by Ioan Cantacuzino: Florian, Numa Pompilius. ms. 1550BAR, Baculard D’Arnaud, Histoire de Machen, Montesquieu, Arsace et Ismenie, J.J. Rousseau, Narcis, ms. 3099 BAR and Alexander Pope, An Esay On Man ms. 6002 BAR. The result is over 15.200 linguistic excerpts and 610 philological excerpts.
The material obtained from 8 translations of various types (literary and scientific texts) norms of Pornind allowed to establish the presentation norms, according to the model:
1. Phonetics
1a. Phonetic features specific to the old and popular language;
1b. Regional phonetic features;
1c. Innovations:
 Innovations that entered the modern literary language;
 Innovations that have been abandoned.
2. Morphology
2a. Morphologic features specific to the old and popular language;
2b. Regional morphologic features;
2c. Innovations:
Innovations that entered the modern literary language;
 Innovations that have been abandoned.
3. Vocabulary
3a. Vocabulary specific to the old and popular language.
3b. Regional vocabulary.
3c. Vocabulary loans:
 Loans and derivatives from Greek and Turkish;
 Loans of Latin-Romance origin, of German origin.
4. Syntax problems; text comparisons.

b) Establishment of norms and models for the monographic articles for the collective volume
Writing norms were established depending on the situation of each text. Some analyses were chosen as models: Constandin Cocorăscu and Charles Rollin (one known translator – 1 translation); The first Romanian translations of the „Halima” (one text, more translations); Mihai Cantacuzino, the Romanian translator of Joseph Delaporte (one translator recently discovered – one translation); The chivalry novel „Imberie şi Margarona” (translation with translator still unknown); Oarecare secreturi ale lucrării pămîntului, a translation in the agronomy field, one of the first of this kind (unknown original, unknown translator); Iordache Slătineanu, translator of Metastasio and Florian (known translator, some discussions on a paternity, known originals).
When all the information on the original of the translation and of the Romanian translator, the following system will be adopted:

Each article will start with the presentation of the title, of the author of the original and with information on the author, the printing place, the source language and/or the intermediary language. In the case of the translation from an intermediary, there will be indications on the translator of the intermediary and data on its work. When the Romanian author of the translation is known, data pertaining to the bibliography related to that age or to the documentation of some members of the team. It will follow the standard presentation of the translation: phonetic, morphologic and vocabulary elements,  syntactic analyses, text comparisons and, whenever the case, researches of philological discussions. A characterisation of the Romanian text will be included, mentioning the importance and the contribution of the translation to the evolution of the Romanian language and culture.

Often there is one important piece of information missing, so that the monographic presentation will be adapted to the particular situation of each translation, as follows:

• When the original is not known, only some personal or bibliography based suppositions can be presented taking into account the linguistic elements that can suggest the source language of the original.
• In the case of an anonymous translator, details on the original translation will be presented as well as considerations based on the linguistic features of the Romanian text and on the philological considerations of the team members or of other researchers (based on the bibliographical information).
• In case no information is available on the author and on the translator, a more important part will be held by the description of the linguistic features in order to support further researches.

The updated philological studies of previous researchers as well as the researchers of the team members will play an important part in the presentation of the data related to each text.

In the case of texts grouped by a certain criterion (for instance, the scientific translations from German), there will be a general presentation of the conditions in the period they were carried out, of the researchers involved and their motivation, followed by an analysis of each text, with details on the source language and original, the characterisation of each text and, finally, the importance of the group of investigated texts.