August Treboniu Laurian (Romanian pronunciation: [awˈɡust treˈbonju la.uriˈan]; 17 July 1810 – 25 February 1881) was a Transylvanian Romanian politician, historian and linguist. He was born in the village of Hochfeld, Principality of Transylvania, Austrian Empire (today Fofeldea as part of Nocrich, Romania). He obtained his doctorate at the Göttingen University and was a participant in the 1848 revolution, an organizer of the Romanian school and one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy.
Laurian was a member of the Transylvanian School, a mainly-Transylvanian movement in the Romanian culture which promoted the idea that Romanians are pure Romans, whose history was a continuation of the history of the Roman Empire.
His book on History of the Romanians began with the Foundation of Rome in 753 BC and after the demise of Rome, it continues with the history of the Romanians, with all dates being converted to the Roman system, Ab urbe condita. Thus, in his book it is written that Vladimirescu's rebellion occurred in the year AUC 2574 (1821 CE).
Because of this alleged continuity, he supported the purification of the Romanian language by stripping it of non-Latin elements and attempting to bring it as close to Latin as possible. Between 1871 and 1876, Laurian collaborated with Ioan Massim for a two-volume Romanian language dictionary, commissioned by the Romanian Academy. The dictionary was stripped of non-Latin words, including neologisms as replacements for such words, which were supposed to be eliminated from the language. The dictionary was also written in an etymological spelling system, the result being an artificial language which only vaguely resembled Romanian and it provoked laughter, discrediting the Latinist school.
See also
Gallery
Notes
- Kellogg, Frederick (13 June 2020). "A history of Romanian historical writing". Academia.edu. p. 27. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
- Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions
- ^ Boia p.87
- Boia p.46–47
External links
- Works by or about August Treboniu Laurian at the Internet Archive
- Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions: August Treboniu Laurian
References
- Lucian Boia, History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness, Budapest: Central European University Press, 2001
| Presidents of the Romanian Academy | |
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| Romanian Academy (1876-1948) | |
| Academy of the Romanian People's/Socialist Republic (1948-1990) |
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| Romanian Academy (1990-) |
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- 1810 births
- 1881 deaths
- Romanian philologists
- Romanian revolutionaries
- Presidents of the Romanian Academy
- Founding members of the Romanian Academy
- Romanian Greek-Catholics
- People of the Revolutions of 1848
- Romanian people in the Principality of Transylvania (1711–1867)
- Emigrants from the Austrian Empire to Romania
- People from Sibiu County
- Burials at Bellu Cemetery
- 19th-century Romanian historians