cristi mindrut wrote:
>in romanian, the "-lea" from "Draculea" doesn't simply
>mean "li'l devil", and is not a diminutive to "dracul".
I actually mentioned this in the context of Vlad's dynasty:
his father Vlad Dracul, and he Vlad Dracula, or, in
Romanian Drãculea. In Romanian it must be Drãculea, since,
as a showed in my previous post, Dracula is too...
exotic.
>there is no Slavic "-a" ending to "draculea"
I referred to Dracula, in this respect, not to Drãculea.
>If you have "5(five) men", and you talk about "the fifth one", in
>romanian would be "5(cinci) oameni", and you are talking about "al
>cincilea" , or if you say "dragon" and "the dragon" and "of the
>dragon" and "of the dam' dragon", in romanian would
>be "drac" ,"dracul", "al dracului", "al draculea" but "al draculea"
>doesn't sound well in our days.
You're right as far as numerals are concerned (2nd, 3rd, 4th etc.
-> Rum. singular, masc. + neutr., al doilea, treilea, patrulea
...). But this has nothing to do with nouns/names such as
Drãculea, Tzugulea, Haplea, Burghelea, Delea (this a shorter
variant of Todérea < Teodor), Mihele/a, Mihale/a & Corne/a,
Aldea, Hage/a, Mihalce/a, Vancea, Oancea, Horea (['ho-ræ] is
the initial, Transylvanian pronunciation, ['ho-rea] is the
pan-Romanian pronunciation, and Horia ['ho-ri-a] is the latest,
modified, name, but which has gotten the most popular variant
in the last 100 years or so) -- or locutions such as
<de-a binelea>, <d'a'mboulea>, <d'a'mpiciorelea>.
As for Dragolea (or Drãgolea?), the Bucharest phone directory
contained in the pages at www.paginialbe.ro reveals at least
two 2nd names Dragolea: that of Octavian Nelu and that of
Violeta. So, at least in theory, the Vlad TzepeS's signature
Dragolya might be put into relationship with the Romanian
Drag-derivation Dragolea.
>so you can say "al dracu" or "dracului" or "al draculea".
What you can say is <al dracului> and <al dracu',> which
is a mere shortening of the former (even <al dreacu'>, with
the diphtongation of the [a]; this would be kind of slangy
or regional pronunciation). But *al draculea simply
does not exist.
> also "Draga"(magyar).
drága ['dra:-gO]. AFAIK, not as a 1st name, Drága, though
(unlike in Romanian, e.g. Draga Olteanu).
>criztu
George