Alexandru Philippide

{{Short description|Romanian linguist and philologist (1859–1933)}} {{for|his son the poet|Alexandru A. Philippide}} {{Infobox scholar | image = Alexandru Philippide (1859-1933).jpg | image_size = 250 | alt = | caption = | name = Alexandru I. Philippide | fullname = | other_names = | birth_date = {{birth date|1859|5|1}} | birth_place = Bârlad, United Principalities | death_date = {{death date and age|1933|8|12|1859|5|1}} | death_place = Iași, Kingdom of Romania | era = late 19th–early 20th century | school_tradition = Neogrammarian<br>''Junimea''<br>''Viața Românească'' | main_interests = Phonology, Indo-European studies, literary criticism, aesthetics, history of Romania, literature of Romania | notable_ideas = | major_works = | influences = Timotei Cipariu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Mihail Kogălniceanu, Alexandru Lambrior, Titu Maiorescu, Hermann Paul, Gustav Weigand | influenced = Vasile Bogrea, Dimitrie Găzdaru, Gheorghe Ghibănescu, Iorgu Iordan, Gheorghe Ivănescu, Haralambie Mihăescu, Giorge Pascu, Ioan Șiadbei }}

'''Alexandru I. Philippide''' ({{IPA|ro|alekˈsandru filiˈpide}}; May 1, 1859 – August 12, 1933) was a Romanian linguist and philologist. Educated in Iași and Halle, he taught high school for several years until 1893, when he secured a professorship at the University of Iași that he would hold until his death forty years later. He began publishing books on the Romanian language around the time he graduated from university, but it was not until he became a professor that he drew wider attention, thanks to a study of the language's history. Although not particularly ideological, he penned sharp, witty polemics directed at various intellectual figures, both at home and, in one noted case, in the German Empire. As a conservative who rallied with the ''Junimea'' club, Philippide rejected didactic art and mocked its socialist patrons—though his own work had hints of socialist humanitarianism.

In 1898, Philippide began work on a Romanian dictionary; by 1906, he and his team had completed the first four letters of the alphabet before others took over the task. His advocacy of phonetic spelling was cherished by a group of writers and activists which put out ''Viața Românească'' magazine; they also shared Philippide's Germanophilia, which manifested itself in particular during the political debates that preceded Romania's entry into World War I. Unlike the other Germanophiles, Philippide spent the second half of the war at Iași, which, following a series of major defeats, endured as the capital of a rump Romanian state. His major work, which appeared in two hefty volumes in 1925 and 1928, brings together a wide range of ancient sources and linguistic evidence to analyze the ethnogenesis of the Romanians and the development of their language. Although attacked for parochialism by one set of academics, the students he trained carried forth his ideas by forming the core of an Iași-based linguistic school.

==Biography==

===Origins and early career=== Philippide was born in Bârlad, Tutova County, Western Moldavia;<ref name="a13">Arvinte, p. 13</ref> this region is coterminous the autonomous state of Moldavia, which had joined the United Principalities during the close of 1858, shortly ahead of the linguist's birth. His father Iancu was deputy prefect of a ''plasă'' during the reign of Alexandru Ion Cuza, and owned land at Cerțești, a village to the south.<ref>Rădulescu, p. 88</ref> Philippide was of Greek origin on his father's side, the family originating in Milies, a village at the foot of Mount Pelion in Thessaly. His great-grandfather's brother Daniel Philippidis, a historian and geographer, had settled in Iași at the turn of the 19th century.<ref name="ursachi">{{in lang|ro}} Gabriela Ursachi, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052933/http://www.romlit.ro/aprilie2 "Aprilie"], in ''România Literară'', Issue 16/2005</ref> His family origins were a source of pride, even in old age: asked by Nicolae Bănescu if he was of Aromanian background, the linguist replied, "no, no, we're entirely Greek!"<ref>Șova, p. 65</ref>

Alexandru attended primary school (1866–1870) and Gheorghe Roșca Codreanu High School (1870–1877), both in his native city.<ref name="ww">{{in lang|ro}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20120219053800/http://www.primariabarlad.ro/cultura/personalitati%20barladene.pdf "Un who's who bârlădean"], pp. 8–9, at the Bârlad City Hall site</ref> After taking his baccalaureate in May 1878, he enrolled in the University of Iași, earning his degree, "with top honors",<ref name="diprofesor">D. Ivănescu, "Arhiva ''Convorbirilor''. Al. Philippide, profesor", in ''Convorbiri Literare'', Vol. LXXXIX, Issue 7, July 1983, p. 10</ref> in 1881. Pursuing specialized study at the University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1888 to 1890, he took courses in classical and modern philology, archaeology and the history of Greek philosophy.<ref name="a13"/><ref name="ww"/><ref name="cuza">{{in lang|ro}} [http://150.uaic.ro/personalitati/litere/alexandru-philippide/ "Alexandru Philippide"] at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University site</ref> While there, he met Eduard Sievers, Heinrich Keil and Hermann Suchier, becoming close friends with the latter.<ref>Șova, p. 66</ref> A librarian at the Central University Library of Iași from 1881 to 1884, he subsequently taught at the city's National College.<ref name="cuza"/> He was hired there to fill a vacancy caused by the death of an admired teacher, Alexandru Lambrior,<ref>Șova, pp. 65–66</ref> having received good referrals from the university, which managed the school.<ref name="diprofesor"/>

Returning to teach high school after his German stint,<ref name="ww"/> Philippide stirred controversy as a flamboyant, unortohodox educator, relying on oratory and reading his students samples from ''Moftul Român'', a satirical magazine.<ref name="zarif">Paul Zarifopol, "Alexandru Philippide", in ''Adevărul Literar și Artistic'', Issue 663, August 1933, p. 1</ref> His final class included several who became figures of importance in 20th-century Romania: political activist Leon Ghelerter, journalist Emil Fagure, novelist Dimitrie D. Pătrășcanu, poet Avram Steuerman-Rodion, and an advice columnist, Doctor Ygrec. The latter recalled that Philippide, a "tiny, minuscule man", would reach greatness whenever he recited the poetry of Mihai Eminescu, managing to stir in all of them the passion for high literature.<ref>Doctorul Ygrec, "Carnetul nostru. Profesorul meu de română: Al. Philippide", in ''Adevărul'', August 17, 1933, p. 1</ref>

Philippide ultimately became a professor at the literature faculty in Iași in 1893, retaining the post until his death.<ref>Arvinte, p. 13; Boia, p. 278</ref> He was initially a substitute professor in the newly created department, rising to full professor in 1896.<ref name="ww"/> A Neogrammarian, he taught courses on the history of the Romanian language, general linguistics, Vulgar Latin, the physiology of the human voice and the origin of the Romanians.<ref>Arvinte, p. 13; Pamfil 2008, p. 212</ref> The initiator of an original theory of linguistics, this was developed and augmented by his student Gheorghe Ivănescu.<ref>Arvinte, pp. 13–14</ref> His books, studies and articles total some 4000 pages, while his course materials number another 1500.<ref name="p297">Pamfil 1992, p. 297</ref> The latter, in which he traced the history of the Romanian language, complemented his published work. It was where he tested new ideas and drafted outlines for the full-length ''Originea românilor''.<ref>Pamfil 2008, pp. 211-212</ref> He was additionally interested in observing archeological research, especially in regard to the newly discovered Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, and encouraged Orest Tafrali to set up Iași's history museum.<ref name="diprofesor"/>

===Debut years=== An early work by Philippide was the 1881 ''Încercare asupra stării sociale a poporului românesc în trecut'' ("Investigation into the Social Status of the Romanian People in the Past"), which attempted to trace the origins of Romanian culture.<ref name="p297"/> In 1882, Philippide undertook a thorough linguistic analysis to demonstrate that the ''Chronicle of Huru'', a purported 13th-century document, was in fact a modern forgery.<ref name="ld1882">Lucian Dumbravă, "Ecouri. ''Convorbiri'' — 1882", in ''Convorbiri Literare'', November 1982, p. 12</ref><ref>Pavel, pp. 31–32</ref> The piece was carried in ''Convorbiri Literare'' magazine, published by ''Junimea'' society; philologist Lucian Dumbravă sees here the core elements of his scholarship ("he is learned, thorough, authoritative [and] markedly ironic").<ref name="ld1882"/> Philippide then authored {{lang|ro|Introducere în istoria limbei și literaturei române}} ("Introduction to the History of Romanian Language and Literature") in 1888 and ''Gramatică elementară a limbii române'' ("Elementary Grammar of the Romanian Language") in 1897. This was at a time when domestic scientifically composed textbooks were in scarce supply.<ref name="p297"/> The first work, after presenting the author's ideas on literary history, goes on to provide biographical sketches of Romanian literary figures from the 16th-century Coresi through 1821. Philippide believed that a satisfactory history of Romanian literature did not exist, and set out to correct this deficiency;<ref>Ichim, pp. 58–59</ref> according to philologist Eugen Negrici, his coverage of literary matters was below minimal, contrasting later approaches by Nicolae Cartojan (who claimed to have discovered an "old literature").<ref>Negrici, pp. 226–232</ref> Beginning on this basis,<ref name="d19">Dragomir, p. 19</ref> Philippide grappled with the issue of the literary language, which he termed the "common language". Observing that Romanian had not yet developed a firm standard, he both suggested a theory of language evolution and steps to be taken toward standardization.<ref>Dragomir, p. 17</ref> However, he rejected wholesale attempts to create a new variant, which he accused Heimann Hariton Tiktin of doing prematurely.<ref>Dragomir, pp. 19–20</ref> He ascribed overarching importance in the creation and evolution of literary languages to popular writers.<ref name="d19"/>

The second work, targeted at a specialist audience,<ref name="b25">Brâncuș, p. 25</ref> was not intended as a textbook but as a means to show Romanian grammar as it existed in reality; this was in contrast with Tiktin's 1891 teaching manual. Philippide discussed words selected from the dictionary by Alexandru Cihac, the only one he found respectable; and from writers, Moldavians especially: Ion Creangă foremost, but also Eminescu, Alexandru Odobescu, Costache Negruzzi, Petre Ispirescu, Costache Conachi and Vasile Alecsandri; and from the Moldavian chronicles, as well as a bit of Anton Pann. The book features many examples of the spoken language, some of them in the Moldavian subdialect. He believed the examples would help illustrate the development of the language's inflection and syntax;<ref>Brâncuș, p. 19</ref> this methodology is unique in the annals of Romanian grammar works.<ref name="b25"/> Here, he introduced the (debated) notion that the Romanian literary language was not based on a particular subdialect, but resulted from each one's contributions. While the Wallachian form was previously dominant, the increasing output of Moldavian writers meant that, by the end of the 19th century, the written language had become a compromise between the two.<ref>Pavel, pp. 38–39</ref>

It was an 1894 history of the language that put him on the academic map. Although modeled on Hermann Paul's ''Principles of the History of Language'', it was original in scope, discussing the distinction between literary and spoken language, the causes of linguistic change, the processes that lead to literary language formation and the relation between language and orthography.<ref name="p297"/> In his writing, he insisted on phonetic spelling, a principle that arose not only out of his linguistic theory, but also from his study of anthropology, which led him to believe that "naturalness" should lie at the heart of language, as well as morality, society and art.<ref name="p84">Patraș, p. 84</ref> However, he made one significant exception to the phonetic rule: his own surname. When asked on this point, he joked that he wished to show he had the same name as Alexander the Great, "who was himself Alexandru Philippide, that is, Alexander, son of Philip."<ref name="ursachi"/>

Philippide married twice. As a bachelor, he sought a German bride, having become convinced during his Halle days that a German woman would be ideal for him.<ref>Nastasă, p. 63</ref> His first wife, Johanna Minckwitz, had a doctorate in Romance philology and was the daughter of a Zürich professor. The marriage took place in a civil ceremony at Saint Helier on Jersey in early October 1895.<ref>Nastasă, pp. 63, 87</ref> Although initially delighted with his new wife, the relationship soured due to the presence of Philippide's mother-in-law in his house. During one heated argument, he handled an axe and Johanna took her mother's side. Eventually, the two women returned to Switzerland and the marriage ended in divorce.<ref name="n90"/> Johanna continued to be interested in Romanian literature, and put out her own study of Eminescu's poetry.<ref>Bădară, p. 47</ref> She and Philippide reportedly had a child, although details have not survived.<ref>Nastasă, p. 71</ref>

In 1897, Philippide married a Romanian woman.<ref name="n90">Nastasă, p. 90</ref> This was Lucreția Nemțeanu, a young novice at Agapia Monastery, where her sister was a nun. Her father, the former mayor of Vânători-Neamț, was the administrator of the mental hospital in Târgu Neamț.<ref name="pillat">Dinu Pillat, ''Itinerarii istorico-literare'', p. 261. Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1978</ref><ref name="n102">Nastasă, p. 102</ref> He first learned of Lucreția when he saw her photograph in the hands of her brother, a student of his, and asked to meet her; a month and a half later, the two were married. This time, both a civil and a religious (Romanian Orthodox) service were held, probably at the insistence of his new in-laws.<ref>Nastasă, p. 87</ref> Although remarking on her "rotten poverty", he admired Lucreția's youth, beauty and kindness, considering her the opposite of Johanna.<ref name="n102"/> Their son, born in 1900, was the future poet Alexandru A. Philippide.<ref name="ursachi"/><ref name="pillat"/> The latter would recall the Spartan education received from his father, involving a strict program of Homeric verse in the original Greek.<ref name="p79"/> The elder Philippide drew a sharp distinction between science, which he regarded as the province of manly, knowledge-seeking personalities; and literature, particularly poetry, which for him was an unserious activity for sensitive small minds. Although he had flirted with poetry as a young man, he was saddened to see his son adopt it as a profession.<ref name="p80">Patraș, p. 80</ref>

===''Junimea'' and dictionary project=== Philippide only entered ''Junimea'' in the early 1890s, during its gradual relocation to Bucharest, the national capital. He then remained in contact with the young intellectuals who still met in Iași, where ''Junimea'' maintained a nominal presence—with N. Volenti and Teohari Antonescu as mainstays. Philippide was disgusted by the provincial airs of Iași ''Junimism''. In December 1898, he wrote a letter to ''Junimea'' founder Titu Maiorescu, telling him that his creation had "degenerated" beyond recognition: "joke has turned to buffoonery, sally to insanity, liberty to anarchy."<ref>Ornea (1998, I), p. 100</ref> His time at ''Junimea'' did not leave a significant impact on his thinking: it was for him primarily a means of access to high society and developing useful connections with prominent figures capable of helping him advance. Later, once he was secure in his professorship, he distanced himself from ''Junimism'', particularly its political manifestation.<ref name="p83">Patraș, p. 83</ref>

Philippide did retain something of the conservative aesthetics promoted by Maiorescu, with which his tastes and sensibilities naturally fit in.<ref name="p83"/> Like Maiorescu himself, he derided didacticism, "social ideals" in art, and the Marxist school of Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea. He detailed this hostility in his essay ''Idealuri'' ("Ideals"), serialized by ''Convorbiri Literare'' in 1892 and 1893: Philippide thought it absurd that Dobrogeanu-Gherea equated cultural heritage with socialist culture, and was infuriated by the Marxist claim that ''Junimea'' would not survive at all in cultural memory.<ref>Ornea (1998, II), pp. 74, 332–333, 339, 340–343, 345, 357</ref> Writing from a ''Junimist'' standpoint, he opined that a writer must take literary tradition into account, and that his writing should be devoid of moralizing.<ref>Pavel, p. 39</ref> According to literary historian Z. Ornea, ''Idealuri'' is "dense, confused, and rather outside the scope of the polemic", as well as "passionately violent" in tone.<ref>Ornea (1998, II), pp. 341–342</ref>

From 1900, Philippide joined the 26-man team of editors at ''Convorbiri Literare'' (a step in its ongoing transition from literary polemics to scientific publishing).<ref>Ornea (1998, I), pp. 118–120</ref> In 1902, at Constantin Stere's urging, Philippide joined the anti-''Junimist'' National Liberal Party, but retained amiable or even friendly ties to ''Junimea'' figures, particularly Maiorescu.<ref name="p83">Patraș, p. 83</ref> In line with the latter's pronouncements, he was a critic of modern, bourgeois-created Romanian society.<ref name="p82"/> Although nearly as vehement in this regard as Eminescu, he approached the matter not from a political angle but based on the classical morality espoused in the ''Nicomachean Ethics''.<ref name="p83"/> An independent thinker and committed individualist, characterized by moral intransigence, a lucid critic of his era and of his country's negative aspects, Philippide refused to be pigeonholed into a single ideological current, thus occupying a rare position for the time.<ref name="p81">Patraș, p. 81</ref> Fellow scholar Paul Zarifopol remembered him for his "permanent irritability" and "chronic indignation", which made him stand out as a Romanian answer to Gustave Flaubert.<ref name="zarif"/> His original thought combined tendencies normally thought of as contradictory: to his ''Junimist'' foundations were added small portions of socialist-tinted humanitarianism and nationalism in the ''Sămănătorist''-Poporanist vein, as well as a hefty dose of German notions. Nevertheless, in the view of literary critic Antonio Patraș, they managed to form a coherent and compelling whole, lending scientific but also moral authority to his writings.<ref name="p81"/>

Elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1898 and upgraded to titular member in 1900,<ref name="cuza"/><ref>Arvinte, p. 13; Bădară, pp. 48, 50</ref> he took part in its sessions twice, in 1910 and 1918.<ref name="ww"/> Philippide pursued two major tasks: the composition of a Romanian dictionary and the writing of the language's history from its origins to his day. Between 1898 and 1906, under the academy's aegis, he worked on ''Dicționarul limbii române'' ("Dictionary of the Romanian Language"), together with several students. The project was sponsored by Maiorescu, who, like Philippide, deplored the excessive tendency to ascribe Latin etymologies. He managed to write definitions for letters A through D before having to interrupt his work; the manuscript covers 11,744 folio pages. He put together a bibliography and plan for the whole dictionary and collected over 600,000 files.<ref>Arvinte, p. 14; Pamfil 1992, p. 299; Patraș, pp. 86–87</ref><ref name="px">Sextil Pușcariu, ''Limba română: Privire generală'', p. x. Editura Minerva, 1976</ref>

Inherited from Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, who offered to pass him notes,<ref>Bădară, p. 50</ref> the project subsequently passed into the hands of Sextil Pușcariu.<ref name="px"/> The proximate cause for the end of Philippide's involvement was that the contract had expired; however, disagreements had arisen over the years as well. The academy and King Carol wanted a normal, functional, barebones dictionary, while Philippide preferred an exhaustive compilation of the lexis, "a Littré for the Romanians"<ref>Patraș, pp. 86–87</ref> (although he eventually dropped entries on proper nouns).<ref>Bădară, pp. 49–50</ref> One of his collaborators on the project was Garabet Ibrăileanu, whom he had helped set up ''Viața Românească''. The two shared a conservative temperament but not a similar political outlook, and Philippide took aim at the other's purported deficiencies as a philologist, seeing him as primarily a philosopher.<ref>Patraș, pp. 83, 84, 87</ref>

===Renewed public debates=== thumb|260px|Philippide's house in Iași Alongside Stere, Philippide was a founding member and mentor of ''Viața Românească'' magazine, which, according to his own linguistic norms, was written in conscious contrast to the official spelling directives from the academy.<ref name="p83"/> In his essays, which appeared in ''Viața Românească'' and in ''Convorbiri Literare'', Philippide tried to create a model portrait of the Romanian intellectual. His writings were polemical, sharply attacking the leading figures of his time. He derided a certain type of "specialist", and insisted that intellectuals needed to focus above all on enrichment through learning.<ref>Pamfil 1992, p. 299</ref> His intellectual models had both made their mark prior to Alexandru Ioan Cuza's being deposed in 1866: Timotei Cipariu and Mihail Kogălniceanu. Considering he lived in a darker age, the only later scholar he admired was Lambrior, while the quintessential "specialist" for him was Hasdeu.<ref>Șova, p. 67</ref>

Philippide urged the ''Viața Românească'' journalists to write more comedy, arguing that life itself was already providing enough tragedies.<ref name="sevastos">Mihail Sevastos, "Alex. Philippide", in ''Adevărul'', August 15, 1933, p. 1</ref><ref name="papà">Obs., "Papà Philippide, văzut la cursuri, în intimitatea aulei universitare. Peste treizeci de generații de studenți l-au decorat an cu an cu 'marele cordon' al dragostei", in ''Lumea Politică și Socială'', August 16, 1933, p. 2</ref> One of his colleagues there, Mihail Sevastos, reports that, far from being a bookish loner, he "had a zest for life—life with all its manifestations, literary, political, social."<ref name="sevastos"/> Uninterested in adopting others' opinions, with a penchant for discipline and thoroughness acquired in Germany, Philippide became an adept of Stoicism, which accounts for his emphasis on ethical values, above all honesty. His devotion to plain talk sometimes caused problems in social settings.<ref>Bădară, p. 49; Patraș, pp. 79–80</ref> Analyzing his style, particularly as found in his correspondence, philologist Cristina Florescu categorizes Philippide as a late Romantic, displaying "impetuosity, idealism, a longing for a vanished time, imprudent and abrupt gestures", his flourishes meshing with his "elevated consciousness of Romanian realities".<ref>Florescu, pp. 44–45</ref> She suggests that his spirit, in order to face a society he often shunned, took refuge in humor.<ref>Florescu, p. 50</ref> His primary weapon was irony: "whether acidic or gently sentimental, frequently hilarious but even more often stinging". His blend of satire, humor and irony made for a highly specific writing style.<ref>Florescu, p. 48</ref> However, as argued by his friend Gheorghe T. Kirileanu, his speeches were uplifting, "stirring up inside you, in the deepest parts of your soul, the pleasure to work and live."<ref>Bădară, p. 48</ref> According to Kirileanu, Philippide was cheerful only "because he wants to make others happy"; his scatological jokes, however, were perfectly suited to annoy "the delicate aristocrats", Simion Mehedinți and Matei B. Cantacuzino.<ref>Bădară, p. 49</ref>

Collections of his essays appeared as ''Specialistul român. Contribuție la istoria culturii românești din secolul XIX'' ("The Romanian Specialist. Contribution to the History of Romanian Culture in the 20th Century", 1906–1907), and as {{lang|ro|Cum se apără specialistul român}} ("How the Romanian Specialist Defends Himself", 1908). However, he also attacked German linguist Gustav Weigand in a series of articles that appeared in 1909–1910 in ''Viața Românească'', published in 1910 in a single volume as ''Un specialist român la Lipsca'' ("A Romanian Specialist at Leipzig"). He began by defending his student Giorge Pascu, the target of a number of attacks by Weigand. Broadening the scope of his polemic, he questioned Weigand's competence as a scholar of Romanian, as well as that of other contemporary linguists. He passionately underscored what he considered Weigand's shortcomings as a person, accusing him of lacking objectivity and even of intrigue, claiming he sent letters to magazines in order to stop publication of articles by professional rivals.<ref>Dumistrăcel, p. 28</ref> In tandem, he recommended Pascu for the title of docent in 1913, observing that his study of Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian was up to the most rigorous standards of academia.<ref name="diprofesor"/>

Philippide made a trip to Western Europe in 1914, after which he remained in Iași for the rest of his days.<ref name="ww"/> Like many educated Moldavians, he expressed distaste for Bucharest, considering it the root of all evil. He derided the Romanian Parliament as a gathering of "wretched undertakers", and railed against the Romanian Academy, which he saw as a hastily improvised imitation of prestigious Western academies, rife with imposture and improvisation, its members concerned with getting rich quickly rather than finding comfort in the rewards of philosophy.<ref name="p82">Patraș, p. 82</ref> Philippide, in common with other ''Junimists'', deplored the French influence on Romania, believing the country needed a Germanic touch for its betterment.<ref name="p80"/> He was proud to live far from the hustle and bustle of Bucharest, hoping to revive the ''Junimea''-era glories of the country's former cultural capital that he inhabited. To this end, he helped bring a superior class of students, professors, writers and artists to Iași.<ref name="p83"/>

Philippide, together with many other ''Junimists'' and Iași academics such as Stere, favored the Central Powers for the first two years of World War I, during which interval Romania remained neutral.<ref>Boia, pp. 109, 111</ref> They found themselves heckled by many of the students at Iași University, who favored the Entente Powers. In February 1916, after a student strike led by Ententists Gheorghe Cuza and Grigore T. Popa, Philippide (urged on by Stere) asked for leniency toward the offenders, and advised against closing down their student clubs.<ref>Ornea (1991), pp. 118–125</ref> The ramifications of this scandal prompted Stere to resign from his position as Rector, with Philippide assigned to take over in a caretaker's position.<ref>Ornea (1991), pp. 124–125</ref> His cooperation with Stere deepened: also in early 1916, he supported Stere's bid to return as Rector, and ran on the same list as him. Although Philippide gathered most votes, the list overall lost as a result of government opposition and intrigue.<ref>Boia, pp. 119–120, 243, 278–279, 314–315; Ornea (1991), pp. 125–127</ref>

===Wartime and ''Originea românilor''=== The "Germanophile" party lost, as, in 1916, Romania joined the Entente. In September of that year, Philippide noted that three professors had been drafted, while three others had been retained as propagandists of the Press Bureau. He demanded that at least the latter category be reinstated and "allowed to lecture in their fields."<ref name="diprofesor"/> After the German counteroffensive, which occurred immediately after, Bucharest was occupied and Iași became the provisional capital of a rump Romanian state. Between October 1916 and spring 1919, Iași University virtually ceased functioning due to the hardships of war. Its buildings were requisitioned by the War Ministry and most of the faculty were not in town. However, a few professors, including Philippide as well as Ibrăileanu and Dimitrie Gusti, were able to teach part of their course schedule inside their private homes, which were not entirely taken over by the army.<ref>Ovidiu Buruiană, "Partidul Național-Liberal în alegerile parlamentare din anul 1928", in ''Analele științifice ale Universității "Al. I. Cuza" din Iași: Istorie'', vol.LI/2005, p. 276</ref> In October 1918, months after Romania had made peace with Germany, Philippide proposed Stere, Ibrăileanu, and Ilie Bărbulescu for membership of the academy—they lost, owing to Stere's uncompromising Germanophilia.<ref>Boia, pp. 111, 278–279, 357. See also Ornea (1991), pp. 213–215</ref>

thumb|The first volume of ''Originea românilor'' Philippide spent the better part of his career on his second principal endeavor, a history of the language and an exploration of how it arose.<ref name="sevastos"/><ref name="a14"/> He continued to work on it throughout the war, and, by his own account, had once destroyed the family piano, using a hatchet, because the music was too distracting;<ref name="papà"/> his passion, Sevastos reports, made him look "possessed".<ref name="sevastos"/> The resulting book was ''Originea românilor'' ("The Origin of the Romanians"). Its first, 889-page volume appeared in 1925, with the second 829-page one being published in 1928.<ref>Pamfil 1992, p. 297; Pamfil 2008, p. 211</ref> Volume I, ''Ce spun izvoarele istorice'' ("What Historical Sources Say"), deals with the Romanians' ethnogenesis (''see origin of the Romanians'') and displays Philippide's abilities as an historian. He brings critical analysis to the works of Herodotus, Polybius, Appian, Strabo, Ptolemy and Cassius Dio, focusing on their writings about Dacia and the northern Balkans. The work includes long passages that had never previously appeared in Romanian. At the same time, he details the Latin inscriptions found in the Balkans, paying close attention to Procopius' ''De aedificiis'' but also to other material in the ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum''.<ref name="a14"/>

Philippide calculates the length and intensity of Romanization in various parts of the Balkans and documents the ethnic migrations that took place throughout the Middle Ages between the north and south banks of the Danube.<ref name="p297"/> Additionally, he summarizes and critiques the main theories of ethnogenesis that appeared between the Middle Ages and the beginning of the 20th century.<ref name="a14">Arvinte, p. 14</ref> He completely rejects the notion put forth by Austrian historian Robert Roesler that Romance-speaking people migrated into Transylvania in the 12th–13th centuries, after Magyar settlement, instead proposing a migration north of the Danube starting in the 6th century.<ref name="p298">Pamfil 1992, p. 298</ref> He made a correction to the Jireček Line that was generally accepted by later linguists.<ref>Pamfil 1992, pp. 297–298</ref>

Part I of volume II is called ''Ce spune limba română'' ("What the Romanian Language Says"), and details the history of the language's phonology. Remaining a standard reference text into the 21st century, the book also includes a history of Aromanian grammar. Using the comparative historical method of the Indo-Europeanists, he reconstructs the language at its beginnings, labeling it "primitive Romanian" (''see Proto-Romanian language''), a dialect of Vulgar Latin. He suggests how the Eastern Romance languages were related at that point and how they broke apart into four distinct entities: Daco-Romanian, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian. He used Weigand's linguistic atlas of the area, as well as many other sources on the four languages.<ref>Arvinte, pp. 14–15</ref> The evolution of each sound and each grammatical form in the languages is closely documented.<ref name="p298"/> In the second part of volume II, ''Ce spune limba albaneză'' ("What the Albanian Language Says"), he tackles the difficult question of how Romanian is related to Albanian and how this might shed light on Romanians' ethnogenesis. His conclusions retain general acceptance: that commonalities between the two languages are not due to borrowing by the ancestors of the Romanians from early Albanian, or vice versa, but arise from an ancient substrate. For Romanian, this is a pre-Roman, Thracian-Dacian-Moesian one; while for Albanian, the substrate is the Illyrian-Pannonian language.<ref>Arvinte, p. 15</ref>

In terms of where ethnogenesis took place, Philippide, based on historic and linguistic investigation, proposed that this happened after 268 AD in the Roman provinces south of the Danube: Pannonia Inferior, Moesia (Superior and Inferior) and Dardania, and not in Dacia Traiana. Later research using discoveries in archaeology and numismatics that had not yet been made in Philippide's day cast doubt on his hypothesis that the Roman population of Dacia withdrew south of the Danube during the reign of Emperor Gallienus. The linguistic portion of his hypothesis dealt with affrication, and he based his conclusions on the chronology of this phenomenon that was accepted in his time. Since then, a new timeline has come to be accepted.<ref>Arvinte, pp. 15–16</ref> Nevertheless, Philippide was not strident in his conclusions, suggesting that a Romanized remnant stayed in Dacia even after 268, while in the parts of Romania that were not under Roman rule, there were people "not Romanized, but only Romanianized, and who live there, where they are now, since time immemorial".<ref name="a16">Arvinte, p. 16</ref>

===Later life and death=== Philippide suffered an attack of paralysis in early 1926 and developed atherosclerosis in 1931.<ref name="ww"/> Although he reached the mandatory retirement age in 1929, he received three successive exemptions that allowed him to remain on the faculty;<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Iorgu Iordan, "Alexandru Philippide", in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130927160958/http://www.muzeul.uaic.ro/public/images/anuare/Anuarul_Universitatii_din_Iasi_1930-1935.pdf ''Anuarul Universității Mihăilene din Iași, 1930–1935''], p. 109. Iași: Editura Universității Mihăilene, 1936</ref> as recalled by his university colleague Traian Bratu, he continued to teach, braving both his disease and the hostility of those who resented his theories.<ref name="comemo">"Comemorarea lui Alexandru Philippide la Iași. Solemnitatea din aula Universității", in ''Dimineața'', December 9, 1933, p. 3</ref> He was instead said to have been much loved by his students. He would not grade them on their attendance, being unusually lenient in his examinations; he was especially indulgent toward female students, but mainly because he viewed them as unscholarly ("I know that I can't ask very much of you").<ref name="papà"/> At the time, his philological approach to literary history had been taken up by Pascu, who put out a number of textbooks, popularizing the Philippidian tenets.<ref>Negrici, p. 230</ref>

In 1932, Philippide Jr was a proofreader and editor for Stere, who was completing his ''Bildungsroman'', ''În preajma revoluției'', with his own father appearing therein as "Al. Temistoclide".<ref>Ornea (1991), pp. 563, 571, 580–581</ref> Philippide Sr's health plummeted upon his wife's death in March 1933 and led to his own death five months later.<ref name="ww"/> A note by Sevastos has it that he died "at his home on Kogălniceanu Street [of Iași], peacefully, among the trees."<ref name="sevastos"/> His obituary, noting his "long and debilitating suffering", announced his funeral service at Saint Spyridon Church, and subsequent burial at Eternitatea cemetery, both set for August 15.<ref>Death announcement in ''Calendarul'', August 16, 1933, p. 5</ref> The ceremony, presided upon by the Orthodox priest Ioan Țincoca, included funeral orations by sociologist Petre Andrei, who represented the Romanian government team, and novelist Mihail Sadoveanu.<ref>"Ultimul drum al lui Alexandru Philippide", in ''Opinia'', August 17, 1933, p. 2</ref> On that day, writer Nicolae Crevedia paid homage to Philippide as a man of unblemished reputation, and a "priest of labor", contrasting him with writers of his own generation—including himself.<ref>Nicolae Crevedia, "Calendarul cultural. Ultimul umanist român: Al. Philippide", in ''Calendarul'', August 16, 1933, p. 5</ref>

In 1927, an Institute of Romanian Philology had been set up alongside Iași University upon the initiative of Philippide and Pascu, its first director. In December 1933, four months after his death, it was named in Philippide's honor.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.philippide.ro/pages/istoric.html Repere istorice] at the Institutul de Filologie Română "A. Philippide" site</ref> This commemoration was marked with speeches by Bratu and Iorgu Iordan, the latter of whom argued that, as a "Moldavian scholar", Philippide had matched the status of Ion Neculce and Dimitrie Cantemir.<ref name="comemo"/> His 1916 adversary Popa, who had by then become a physician and academic, covered the event in one of his articles. He reported it as "not just shameful, but a sign of disease" that, of 150 teaching staff, only twelve had ever shown up.<ref>Grigore T. Popa, "Boala incurabilă a Universității din Iași. Cu prilejul comemorării lui Al. Philippide", in ''Epoca'', December 12, 1933, p. 1</ref> In 1934, his department at the university was assigned to Iordan, who worked there until 1945.<ref>Gavril Istrate, "Iorgu Iordan – omul și savantul", in ''Convorbiri Literare'', October 2006, p. 98</ref>

==Legacy== Patraș observes that, during Philippide's lifetime, only Pușcariu was an intellectual rival of equal stature. The same critic argues that later on, and for mainly ideological reasons, he was ascribed an image of provincialism and extravagance bearing unjustified pretensions. The south-Danubian ethnogenesis hypothesis proposed in ''Originea românilor'' provoked long-term fury among a wide variety of nationalists (described by Patraș as uncultured);<ref name="p81"/> in 1940, after Northern Transylvania had been lost to Hungary, writer Ilariu Dobridor included Philippide among those Romanian scholars who, albeit patriotic in feeling, had maintained such "fog and confusion" regarding Romanian ethnic history that they had strengthened the Hungarian viewpoint.<ref>Ilariu Dobridor, "Arena politică. Concluzii germane și pretenții maghiare", in ''Curentul'', December 31, 1940, p. 3</ref> Philologists summarily dismissed Philippide's view, but, Patraș contends, only did so because of their own ethnic-based prejudices.<ref name="p81"/> Philippide's personal character did not help matters, with contemporaries recalling him as withdrawn, overly proud, unpredictable, cold when not aggressive during unwanted encounters. It was only in the presence of close associates or before the classroom that he let down his guard. Feared and respected by allies as well as rivals, only a relatively few followers understood and valued him.<ref name="p79">Patraș, p. 79</ref> Nevertheless, these latter scholars did make use of his publications as a basis for their own research,<ref name="p81"/> as well as adopting the rigorous intellectual methods and persistent search for knowledge that he displayed.<ref>Gafton, p. 54</ref>

Philippide's students include the main representatives of the Iași school of linguistics: Iordan, Pascu, Gheorghe Ghibănescu, Vasile Bogrea, Constantin Gălușcă, Titus Hotnog, I. N. Popovici, Ioan Șiadbei, Dimitrie Găzdaru, Grigore Scorpan, Haralambie Mihăescu and Gheorghe Ivănescu.<ref name="a16"/> Pascu, Ibrăileanu and Iordan took up his ideas on literary language, but it was Ivănescu who subjected them to a detailed critical analysis and developed his own theory by synthesizing Philippide's with linguistic idealism.<ref>Dragomir, p. 24</ref> Ion Petrovici's opening speech to the Romanian Academy in 1935 had Philippide as its theme. During the Communist period, Iordan published a biography in 1969.<ref name="d278"/> The latter, who retained a strong admiration for his mentor, wrote the book in response to a biography of Hasdeu published the previous year.<ref>Sala, p. 27</ref> Next came by a volume of studies that appeared in 1983 on the occasion of the semicentennial of his death, by a volume of his works the following year, and by a 1986 book recording dialogues with his contemporaries. Carmen-Gabriela Pamfil authored a 2008 biography in preparation for the 150th anniversary of Philippide's birth.<ref name="d278">Dumistrăcel, pp. 27–28</ref> In 2011, his edited course materials were published as ''Istoria limbii române'' ("The History of the Romanian Language").<ref>Vieru, p. 75</ref> Two Iași sites associated with Philippide are listed as historic monuments by Romania's Culture Ministry: his house, now a laboratory used by the city's medical university; and his grave in Eternitatea.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20180928121646/http://www.patrimoniu.ro/images/LMI/LMI-2010_BV.pdf Lista Monumentelor Istorice 2010: Județul Iași], pp. 1607, 1643</ref>

==Selected bibliography== *{{lang|ro|Încercări asupra stărei sociale a poporului român în trecut}}. Iași, 1881 *{{lang|ro|Introducere în istoria limbei și literaturei române}}. Iași, Editura Librăriei Frații Șaraga, 1888 *{{lang|ro|Istoria limbii române. Volumul întâi. Principii de istoria limbii}}. Iași, Tipografia Națională, 1894 *{{lang|ro|Gramatică elementară a limbii române'}}. Iași, Editura Librăriei Isr. Kuppermann, 1897 *{{lang|ro|Originea romînilor, vol. I. Ce spun izvoarele istorice. Vol. II. Ce spun limbile romînă și albaneză}}. Iași, Tipografia "Viața românească" S.A., 1925, 1928

==Notes== {{reflist|25em}}

==References== {{columns-list|colwidth=30em| *{{in lang|ro}} Vasile Arvinte, [http://www.philippide.ro/buletin/Buletin_4_2003.pdf "70 de ani de la moartea lui A. Philippide"], in ''Buletinul Institutului de Filologie Română A. Philippide'', Vol. IV, Issue 4, October–December 2003, pp.&nbsp;13–16 *Cristina Bădară, "G. T. Kirileanu în colecțiile Bibliotecii Centrale Universitare Carol I", in ''Revista Bibliotecii Naționale a României'', Issue 2/2006, pp.&nbsp;45–52 *Lucian Boia, ''"Germanofilii". Elita intelectuală românească în anii Primului Război Mondial''. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2010. {{ISBN|978-973-50-2635-6}} *Grigore Brâncuș, "Gramatica lui Al. Philippide", in ''Anuarul Universității din Iași. Secțiunea III (Lingvistică)'', Vol. LIX, 2013, pp.&nbsp;19–25 *{{in lang|ro}} Mioara Dragomir, [http://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/V_1_Dragomir.pdf "Locul limbii literare în doctrina lui Alexandru Philippide"], in ''Philologica Jassyensia'', Vol. V, Issue 1 (9), 2009, pp.&nbsp;17–25 *{{in lang|ro}} Stelian Dumistrăcel, [http://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/V_1_Dumistracel.pdf "Alexandru Philippide – Gustav Weigand: ipostaze"], in ''Philologica Jassyensia'', Vol. V, Issue (9), 2009, pp.&nbsp;27–42 *{{in lang|ro}} Cristina Florescu, [http://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/V_1_Florescu.pdf "Alexandru I. Philippide. Coordonate stilistice"], in ''Philologica Jassyensia'', Vol. V, Issue 1 (9), 2009, pp.&nbsp;43–50 *{{in lang|ro}} Alexandru Gafton, [http://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/V_1_Gafton.pdf "''Originea românilor'' – piatră de temelie a Școlii lingvistice de la Iași"], in ''Philologica Jassyensia'', Vol. V, Issue 1 (9), 2009, pp.&nbsp;51–55 *{{in lang|ro}} Ofelia Ichim, [http://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/V_1_Ichim.pdf "Alexandru Philippide și receptarea istoriei literare"], in ''Philologica Jassyensia'', Vol. V, Issue 1 (9), 2009, pp.&nbsp;57–61 *Lucian Nastasă, ''Intelectualii și promovarea socială în Romania''. Cluj-Napoca: Editura Limes, 2004. {{ISBN|978-973790-755-4}} *Eugen Negrici, ''Iluziile literaturii române''. Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 2008. {{ISBN|978-973-23-1974-1}} *Z. Ornea, **''Viața lui C. Stere'', II. Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 1991. {{ISBN|973-23-0268-2}} **''Junimea și junimismul'', I-II. Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1998, {{ISBN|973-21-0561-5}} *{{in lang|ro}} Carmen-Gabriela Pamfil, **[https://web.archive.org/web/20140714225401/http://www.alil.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ad.pdf "Alexandru I. Philippide (1859–1933)"], in ''Anuar de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară'', Vol. XXIII A. (Lingvistică), 1992–1993, pp.&nbsp;297–299 **[http://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/IV_1_Pamfil.pdf "''Istoria limbii române'' de Alexandru Philippide"], in ''Philologica Jassyensia'', Vol. IV, Issue 1, 2008, pp.&nbsp;211–232 *Antonio Patraș, [http://www.philologica-jassyensia.ro/upload/V_1_Patras.pdf "Alexandru Philippide la ''Viața Românească''"], in ''Philologica Jassyensia'', Vol. V, Issue 1 (9), 2009, pp.&nbsp;79–88 *Eugen Pavel, "Alexandru Philippide – între filologie și istorie literară", in ''Anuarul Universității din Iași, Secțiunea III (Lingvistică)'', Vol. LIX, 2013, pp.&nbsp;31–41 *{{in lang|ro}} Mihai Sorin Rădulescu, [http://www.arhivelenationale.ro/images/custom/file/10%20radulescu,%20mihai%20sorin.pdf "Philippide – o familie greco-română"], in ''Revista Arhivelor'', Issue 1, 2009, pp.&nbsp;83–96 *Marius Sala, "Cărți și oameni", in ''Anuarul Universității din Iași, Secțiunea III (Lingvistică)'', Vol. LVIII, 2012, pp.&nbsp;27–9 *Simona Șova, "Polemica la Alexandru I. Philippide", in ''Anuarul Universității din Iași, Secțiunea III (Lingvistică)'', Vol. LVIII, 2012, pp.&nbsp;65–74 *Roxana Vieru, "''Originea Românilor'', din nou sub tipar", in ''Anuarul Universității din Iași, Secțiunea III (Lingvistică)'', Vol. LVIII, 2012, pp.&nbsp;75–78 }} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philippide, Alexandru}} Category:1859 births Category:1933 deaths Category:19th-century Romanian male writers Category:20th-century Romanian male writers Category:19th-century Romanian historians Category:20th-century Romanian historians Category:Romanian literary historians Category:Romanian Latinists Category:Linguists from Romania Category:Romanian lexicographers Category:Romance philologists Category:Romanian albanologists Category:19th-century Romanian essayists Category:20th-century Romanian essayists Category:Romanian male essayists Category:Romanian textbook writers Category:Romanian schoolteachers Category:Romanian librarians Category:Romanian magazine editors Category:People from Bârlad Category:People from the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia Category:Romanian people of Greek descent Category:Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church Category:Gheorghe Roșca Codreanu National College alumni Category:Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni Category:Academic staff of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Category:Junimists Category:Romanian nationalists Category:Titular members of the Romanian Academy Category:Romanian people of World War I Category:Deaths from atherosclerosis Category:Burials at Eternitatea cemetery