Thread by @cristi_n_gaspar

I know that sooner or later some of you (👀 @Arnold_Platon 😉 ) might ask: "is there a map?" so, I'm glad to tell you that there is! and a very telling one. 🧵 on words for '(sugar-free) plum jam' in #Romanian.

https://twitter.com/cristi_n_gaspar/status/1438532656434753537

this map shows the approximate regional distribution of terms for "plum jam" based on material collected by Emil Petrovici from 1929 to 1938 for Atlasul lingvistic român II. it reflects varieties of spoken, non-urban #Romanian which, at the time, were still relatively free of...

the significant influence of the southern-based literary standard that came with expansion of literacy & mass-media after WWII. the map shows very nicely how receptive varieties of #Romanian were to borrowing from various languages as a result of #LanguageContact.

south of the Carpathians and in an area in southern Moldavia, the word for "plum jam" is 'magiun' [maˈd͡ʒun], a #Turkish loanword, possibly mediated by Bulgarian. Turk. 'macun' originally meant "(medicinal) fruit paste with spices/drugs/herbs."

in most of Moldavia and in an area of NE Transylvania, the usual term is 'povidlă' [poˈvid.lə], a loanword from Polish ('powidła') or Ukrainian ('povydlo'). the word goes back to the Slavic verb 'poviti' "turn around, wrap, stir" and it referred to the 'stirring spoon' used in...

the process of making jam. as [-dl-] is unusual in native #Romanian words, 'povidlă' was soon changed to fit the native sound-distribution patterns and adapted as 'povirlă' [poˈvir.lə], 'povierlă' [poˈvjɛr.lə], 'povilă' [poˈvi.lə].

a third relatively compact area is my native #Banat, where we use 'pecmĭez,' described in my original post. this Turkish loanword, borrowed through Serbian, has crossed the river Mureș to the north and is used also in southern Crișana.

the remaining parts (Transylvania, northern Crișana, Maramureș) are a fascinating linguistic palimpsest; several terms circulate here, most of them #Hungarian loanwords, representing different layers in the evolution of the language that now coexist. 😃🤓

the oldest word for 'plum jam' north of the Carpathians is 'miere (de prune)' "plum-honey"; Rom. 'miere' [ˈmʲe.re] continues Late Latin *mele(m) and must have served originally as the name of any type of paste-like sweet just as in standard modern #Romanian ...

'dulceață' "sweetness" can mean any type of jam, further specified with qualifiers: 'de prune' (plum), 'de mere' (apple), etc. that is how the expression 'miere de prune' "plum-honey" was probably born. we can tell that this must have been the original term because...

nowadays it only survives in a few isolated, linguistically conservative areas (like Țara Moților or Petroșani) and in some of these it's used together with its later rivals, such as the Hungarian loanword 'lictar.'

Rom. 'lictari' [likˈtarʲ] must be a very old loanword from #Hungarian 'liktár(ium)' attested with the meaning 'marmalade, fruit paste/jam' since the 16th century. Hung. 'liktár(ium)' goes back to a technical term in medieval medical #Latin, 'elect(u)arium' "electuary."

and what is an electuary, you ask? 🤓 well, a sweet, paste-like medicine, which would melt in one's mouth and could serve as a 'vehicle' for more unpleasant drugs/herbs (like Turk. 'macun' mentioned before).

'lictar(iu)' contains another consonant cluster [-ct-] unusual in native #Romanian words, so, it was changed, where it still survives, into more manageable variants such as 'liptar' and 'liftar.'

next to come was 'silvoiz' [ˈsil.vo.iz], a loanword from Hungarian 'szilvaíz' "plum jam," composed of 'szilva' "plum" and 'íz' "taste" then "jam" (first attested with this meaning in the 18th c.). 'silvoiz' has an unusual (sound) structure in #Romanian, so, it was also soon...

adapted to something more manageable: 'silvoi' [silˈvoj] and the remarkable 'silvoiță' [sil.voˈʲi.t͡sə], which combines the initial part of the #Hungarian word with the #Romanian suffix -iță (diminutive & motional) into a very native-looking word.

finally, the latest newcomer is Hungarian 'lekvár' "fruit jam" (< Slovak 'lekvár' < Lat. (e)lectuarium), which entered NW #Romanian, in the Crișana area, as 'lecvar,' soon to be adapted to 'legvar' [legˈvar] ([-cv-] is unusual in native words other than Latinate neologisms).

the map I used was published in Atlasul lingvistic român II, s.n., vol. 4 (Bucharest, 1965). unfortunately, the map does not contain the terms collected from Basarabia and N Bucovina, which were in the USSR at the time and, so, under editorial and cartographic interdiction.