The Intonation of Romanian Greetings: A Sociolinguistics Approach

Authors: Anca-Diana Bibiri, Mihaela Mocanu, Adrian Turculeț

Abstract:

In a language the inventory of greetings is dynamic with frequent input and output, although this is hardly noticed by the speakers. In this register, there are a number of constant, conservative elements that survive different language models (among them, the classic formulae: bună ziua! (good afternoon!), bună seara! (good evening!), noapte bună! (good night!), la revedere! (goodbye!) and a number of items that fail to pass the test of time, according to language use at a time (ciao!, pa!, bai!). The source of innovation depends both of internal factors (contraction, conversion, combination of classic formulae of greetings), and of external ones (borrowings and calques). Their use imposes their frequencies at once, namely the elimination of the use of others. This paper presents a sociolinguistic approach of contemporary Romanian greetings, based on prosodic surveys in two research projects: AMPRom, and SoRoEs. Romanian language presents a rich inventory of questions (especially partial interrogatives questions/WH-Q) which are used as greetings, alone or, more commonly accompanying a proper greeting. The representative of the typical formulae is Ce mai faci? (How are you?), which, unlike its English counterpart How do you do?, has not become a stereotype, but retains an obvious emotional impact, while serving as a mark of sociolinguistic group. The analyzed corpus consists of structures containing greetings recorded in the main Romanian cultural (urban) centers. From the methodological point of view, the acoustic analysis of the recorded data is performed using software tools (GoldWave, Praat), identifying intonation patterns related to three sociolinguistics variables: age, sex and level of education. The intonation patterns of the analyzed statements are at the interface between partial questions and typical greetings.

Keywords: acoustic analysis, greetings, Romanian language, sociolinguistics

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1123715

References:

[1] Marica Pietreanu, Salutul în limba română, studiu sociolingvistic, Editura Științtifică și Enciclopedică, București, 1984.
[2] Traian Herseni, Sociologia limbii, Editura Științifică, Bucurști, 1975.
[3] D. O’Neil, Cultural Anthropology Tutorials, Behavioural Science Department, Palomer College, San Marco, California 2006.
[4] Chițoran Dumitru, Liliana Ionescu Ruxăndoiu, Sociolingvistica, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, București, 1974.
[5] Tatiana Slama-Cazacu, Lecturi de psiholongvistică, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, București, 1980.
[6] Stelian Dumistrăcel, Lexic românesc. Cuvinte, metafore și expresii, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, București, 1980.
[7] F. Coulmas, Routine im Gespräch. Yur pragmatischen Fundierung der Idiomatik, Wiesbaden, 1981.
[8] F. Coulmas, Conversational Routine. in standardized commmunication situations and prepatterned speech, The Hague/Paris/New York, 1981.
[9] R.W. Brown, S.C. Levinson, Die Anrede Politeness. Some universals in language usage, Cambridge, 1987.
[10] Emil Petrovici, Sever Pop, Sextil Pușcariu, Atlasul lingvistic român (ALR), vol. I, Muzeul Literaturii Române, Cluj, (s.a.).
[11] J. Knuf, H.W. Schmitz, Ritualisierte Kommunikation und sozial Struktur, Hamburg, 1980.
[12] http://amprom.uaic.ro/, retrieved: 29th February 2016
[13] http://soroes.ro/, retrieved: 18 February 2016.
[14] Laurenția Dascălu-Jinga, Melodia vorbirii în limba română, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, București, 2001.
[15] Adrian Turculeţ (ed.), La variation diatopique de l'intonation dans le domain roumain et roman, Editura Universităţii „Al. I. Cuza“, Iaşi, 2008.
[16] Laurenția Dascălu-Jinga, ‘Intonation in Romanian’, in Daniel Hirst and Albert di Cristo, Intonation Systems, a survey of twenty languages, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 239-260.
[17] Adrian Turculeţ, Cristina Bleorţu, Anca-Diana Bibiri, ’Las interrogativas parciales: el contoro melódico típico y desviaciones de naturealeza pragmática’, in Estudios de Fonética Experimental, Laboratori de Fonètica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2015, ISSN 1575-5533, p. 237-256.
[18] Adrian Turculeţ, Anca-Diana Bibiri, Andreea Mironescu, ’Modele intonațtionale ale interogativelor totale în Amprom. Poziția emfazei interogative’, in Marius Sala, Maria Stanciu Istrate, Nicoleta Petuhov (eds.), Lucrările celui de-al cincilea Simpozion Internațional de Lingvistică (Bucuresti, 27-28 septembrie 2013), Editura Univers Enciclopedic, Bucureşti, 2015, ISSN 2066 – 7973, p. 181-195.