George (Stana) wrote:
The Proto-Romanian
speaking population (to be stressed here: having a
very low social status, kind of marginalized
population
in the entire area *for centuries*) kept though a
series
of fundamental Christian terminology of Latin
extraction.
Even the word "basilica" ( > "biserica"), which is
unique
in the Romance-speaking world, where the other Greek
term has prevailed, Latinised ecclesia > Ital. chiesa,
Sp. iglesia. This "biserica" might be interpreted as a
further sign of Protoromanians existing outside the
official "paths" of clergy activity in the Eastern
Roman
empire, a clergy that anyway soon ceased to speak
Latin and, instead, spoke Greek.
*****GK: Can you give me more insight into this very
peculiar aspect of Romanian ecclesiastical
terminology? Am I to understand that �biserica� (from
�basilica�) is the standard Romanian word for
�church�? If so, and if there is a way to date the
inclusion of the word into the language, the
implications would be most interesting. As you have
stated, it is the Greek term (via Latin) which entered
the vocabulary of the Romance speaking peoples
(ecclesia, eglise etc.) I have some familiarity with
early Christian writings. I cannot offhand remember a
situation where �basilica� stood for �church� pure and
simple. The standard Latin term was ALWAYS �ecclesia�.
A basilica was a very special kind of church, a royal
church, large and splendid (well we know this of
course). Not your local village church or neighborhood
church. Not the sort of word which you would use,
especially simple people, to designate a church. So a
people which adopted this term early or whenever as a
designation for just �church� would not have been part
of the standard late Roman Christian communities in
any recognizable sense. It almost sounds as an exotic
loan word. The circumstances under which it was
borrowed are obscure. I won�t let my imagination work
overtime here. I would just say that this one word
suggests that the Proto-Romanians had little if any
dealings with either Roman or Greek clergy during the
postulated early times of their alleged conversion
(3/4 cs.) �Ecclesia� is simply not a word which would
drop out of your vocabulary�******
PS> This is just an initial point. I'm rather
interested in this issue and hope to get some
enlightenment from my Romanian friends. I hope they
won't be too dismayed by my playing the continued
advocatus diaboli role either.
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