Keywords: Amita Bhose; Bengali translation; world literature; Romanian literature; cultural ambassador; international literature; comparative literature;
Since the commencement of colonial modernity in India, English, French, and German literature and philosophy have influenced Indian literature. Along with these three major literary spaces, authors also studied new European literature, particularly that of the former USSR republics and small European nations. Translations of literature from Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and many more nations have begun to appear frequently in Bengali magazines since the second decade of 20th century. The Bengali literary canon also was being reshaped by such translations and Europe was redefined beyond the established colonial map, as translation appeared as a new cartography. The literary canon of the colonisers was seen as a dominating literary source and the literature of such minor nations was alternative to those. Additionally, Indian minds were attempting to comprehend various European perspectives on World War- I and II at the moment of the shattering of the nations. Amita Bhose, a well-known translator, spent her life translating from Bengali and Sanskrit to Romanian and Romanian into Bengali and created an emotional bond between Romania, her Bengali as well as Indian heritage, and herself. This paper argues Amita Bhose and her works are attached to an emotional bond that causes a translator to find a new home in the world, and a translator may be regarded best as a cultural ambassador. Amita Bhose through her works from and into Bengali and Romanian bridges between two nations and produced a generation of students who essentially become comparatists in various capacities. An international initiative of an individual brought a new dimension in imagining world literature from a particular location and such paradigmatic practices can be argued as an alternative way of doing a non-anglophone, non-canonical literary comparison
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Keywords: Amita Bhose; translation; Romanian; Bengali; Literature; Cultural exchange;
Researcher, writer, translator and teacher Amita Bhose (Calcutta, 1933 - Bucharest, 1992) has a special place in the Romanian cultural landscape. Born in Calcutta in 1933, in a family with a rich cultural and scientific activity, she graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics of the University of Calcutta, in 1953. In 1959, she came to Romania with her husband, a geological engineer, where she enrolled in a two-year Romanian language and literature course. She then returned to India, where she debuted in the Indian press with the article Rabindranath in Romania. It was the beginning of a long series of Bengali and English articles about Romanian culture and literature, from which she also translated. In 1965 she graduated from the Faculty of Bengali-English at the University of Calcutta, and in 1971, the beneficiary of a scholarship from the Romanian state, she enrolled in a PhD programme at the Faculty of Romanian Language and Literature, the University of Bucharest. In 1975 she defended her thesis titled The Indian Influence on the thoughts of Eminescu. From 1971 until her death she lived in Romania, "the country she loved perhaps more than many Romanians did, and served with her intelligence and her pen" (Zoe Dumitrescu-Buşulenga, the scientific advisor of the thesis). In India she published translations into Bengali from contemporary Romanian poetry, from Sadoveanu, Zaharia Stancu and Marin Sorescu, and plays by I.L. Caragiale and Mihail Sebastian were set on stage. In 1969, the volume Eminescu: Kavita (Poems), the first translation of Eminescu in Asia, was published in Bengali.
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Keywords: Surendranath Dasgupta; Indian Philosophy; Cultural encounters; Indian culture; Calcutta; Philosophy of Literature;
Professor Surendranath Dasgupta (1887-1952) is probably best remembered as a Philosopher and for his contributions to the historiography of Indian Philosophy. This spirit of philosophical enquiry can also be discovered in his famous works on Yoga and Tantra – knowledge systems which are based in praxis. However, as a thinker, Professor Dasgupta defied all disciplinary boundaries and wrote and lectured on the sciences, literature, art history, aesthetics and so on. Even a cursory look at his teaching career establishes the essentially interdisciplinary nature of his calling: among other things, Dasgupta served as a Professor of Sanskrit and Bengali in Rajshahi and Chittagong College; then taught Bengali at Oxford University; became Professor of Philosophy at Presidency College; then Principal of Sanskrit College; afterwards Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calcutta. He was deeply influenced by poetry, especially Rabindranath Tagore, and many of his essays on philosophy would include Tagore’s poetry as an instance to prove his point or as a moment of epiphany in an otherwise structured argument. Besides these scholarly pursuits, he has also authored poetry collections and novels in Bangla. Dasgupta liked to keep himself informed about the latest developments in World Literature and at times, he even participated in the literary debates that were taking place in the public sphere at that period. Perhaps, his initial training as a student of Sanskrit served as the foundation for this lifelong engagement with languages and literatures. My presentation seeks to locate this literary persona of Professor Dasgupta through a reading of some of his works including Sāhitya Paricay and The History of Sanskrit Literature – in which he worked as an editor and as one of the two contributors. Supplementing these with texts on art and aesthetics by Dasgupta, we seek to understand his way of approaching literature – characteristically comparative; looking for patterns of relationships and connections across time, space, cultures
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Keywords: Maitreyi Devi; travel; culture; travel writings; borders; cultures;
Born into a socially conservative but intellectually liberal family, Maitreyi was the daughter of scholar-philosopher Surendranath Dasgupta and Himani Madhuri Rai ( sister of Himanshu Rai, owner/ founder of Bombay Talkies). Her early childhood corresponded with the trying years of the First World War while in her youth she was exposed to the political lessons of the Second World War — to fascist Italy, to the Hitlerite regime in Germany, to Stalinist and post-Stalinist Russia, to Republican and communist China — when Maitreyi, was perceived as a left-wing sympathiser. This was the era of the emergence of nation-states, of obsessive nationalism and revolts against hegemonic and capitalist forces. As an intimate protégée of Rabindranath Tagore, wherever she travelled, to China, Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, she practised the transnationalism that marked out the travelogues of Tagore. This meant that both colonial perceptions and the nation-state centric approach were disrupted by discourses of inter-connectedness that in turn challenged conceptual boundaries of difference and ethnicity
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Keywords: Maitreyi Devi; Na Hanyate; autobiographical novel; cultural encounters; Mircea Eliade; Calcutta; Indian culture;
Maitreyi wrote books of philosophy and also travel books. For Na Hanyate (It Does not Die), the reply-novel to Mircea Eliade’s story, Maitreyi Devi received, in 1976, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the most important distinction from the Academy of Indian Letters. She was invited to give lectures on life and works of her dear friend and mentor, the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, or on Indian philosophy and culture, all over the world. She also had a special role in the emancipation of Indian women. Marked by the drama of children left on the roads as a result of territorial divisions and political struggles, Maitreyi Devi set up an orphanage and attracted significant funds for educating and empowering young people in disadvantaged environments.
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Keywords: West Balkans; TNC; regional integration; EU macro-region; development;
The paper focuses on testing the hypothesis that transnational companies contribute to regional integration and development of West Balkan countries. The testing procedure uses relevant methods (comparison, time series, panel analysis, interviewing method). The test is based on primary research, i.e. the prevalent use of primary sources. The analysis pertains to the 2004-2008 period. The area under research includes Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. The focus is on the Tondach company experiences. Results of the research can be used in the context of considering the need and possibility for the establishment of the third macro-region in Europe, particularly within the framework of developing its development strategy.
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Keywords: culinary vocabulary; methodological principles; Bulgarian dialect culinary dictionary;
Complex studies of culinary terminology, which includes names of various types of food, drinks, culinary processes and technologies from everyday and festive national cuisine, is one of the main tasks of the Section for Bulgarian Dialectology and Linguistic Geography at the IBE of the BAS - dissertations, Interactive culinary map of the Bulgarian language territory and Bulgarian dialect culinary dictionary. The methodological principles for the compilation of the Dictionary are presented: establishment of its chronological and geographical boundaries, selection of the material, principles for the compilation of the dictionary articles, etc. The project makes it possible to lexicographically present a very rich and at the same time archaic layer of the folk lexicon, related to the culinary culture of the Bulgarians as part of the national identity.
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Keywords: dialects; culinary vocabulary; influence; Balkans; interactive; map;
The Bulgarian Dialectology and Linguistic Geography Section at the Bulgarian Language Institute develops important projects of national and international significance, applying the latest and most modern methods and technologies to visualize the results of research and make them even more attractive and accessible to a wide range of the public. The Interactive Culinary Map of the Bulgarian Language Territory is among these projects, and its objectives are to present linguistic and ethnographic materials through audio and video recordings; to collect culinary recipes in authentic local dialect so that the recipient can gain an insight into the peculiarities of a particular dialect; to present the entire linguistic Bulgarian territory, which extends beyond the present state borders; to carry out a linguistic analysis of a representative Bulgarian culinary vocabulary; to establish the relationship between cultural studies and linguistics in this thematic range and to draw conclusions about the lexical mutual influence of the Balkans in the field of culinary vocabulary.
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Keywords: Interactive Culinary Map; Bulgarian dialects; linguistic geography; electronic means; culinary lexicon;
The article presents an Interactive Culinary Map of the Bulgarian language territory, made by research associates of the Institute of Bulgarian Language at IBM “Prof. L. Andreychin” of the BAS with the help of the latest linguogeographical methods, tailored to the development of communication technologies. Through traditional visual means, greater concreteness of the phenomena is achieved, and through electronic means, the dynamic interpretation of these phenomena is possible. The map continues the tradition in Bulgarian linguistic geography, according to which maps and atlases have been produced for years. Mapping of the material is done using a special mapping program. The idea is to show on the map not only the distribution of lexemes (their spatial projection), but also to present linguistic phenomena in their interconnectedness. The aspiration is also aimed at delineating the main culinary regions on the Bulgarian linguistic territory. The production of the interactive culinary map of the Bulgarian language territory fully meets the public needs in the country. Internet users from all over the world (the map has a mirrored English version) can see how the names of typical traditional dishes and drinks are spelled in Bulgarian dialects, as well as hear authentic speech from most dialect areas.
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Keywords: note of word formation; prefix; do-; equivalent; dictionary; Bosnian language; German language;
Amongst numerous Bosnian language prefixes carrying different meanings, do- is one of those prefixes that causes difficulties to translators since it is sometimes complicated to find its equivalents in a foreign language. This paper analyzes various uses of the prefix in the Bosnian language and proposes ways in which it can be translated into other languages. Firstly, one starts with a supposition that a prefixed word cannot always be translated into a target language with a prefix; therefore, paraphrases can be used instead. Secondly, many Bosnian verbs can be translated with various German prefixes. This paper aims to create notes of word formation for the prefix do- and determine its equivalents in the German language to give dictionary users a synthetic overview of the most important meaning equivalents. These formation notes should serve as a model for all Bosnian dictionaries translating into German or some other languages. To achieve this purpose, we will use corpora linguistic methods, the starting point being Bosnian language dictionaries. In addition, the existing monolingual electronic corpora and bilingual dictionaries will be employed. The research results confirm the hypothesis that many cases allow the translation of the prefix do- by some German prefixes.
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Keywords: paremiology; phraseology; lexicography; dictionary; phraseological semantics;
Dictionary of Proverbs and Similar Paremiological Expressions lists semantically related entries for each paremiological expression, if they have already been included in the dictionary. The article first presents the first paremiological dictionary of the Slovenian language, which is being created at The Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts). The first dictionary entries were published on the Fran.si webpage in 2020, and since then new dictionary entries have been added once a year. Currently, 400 paremiological expressions (mostly proverbs but also other) are included in the dictionary. The information on semantically related paremiological expressions shows the connections between synonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms and antonyms. In the analysis, we help ourselves with the typology of semantic relationships presented by Peter Ďurčo. The lexicographical information on semantically related paremiological expressions also provides a connection between (phraseologically fixed) anti-proverbs and proverbs from which these anti-proverbs were created. Similarly, in the dictionary, wellerisms and the expressions from which they were formed are linked. In the article, we touch upon the issue of a wider group of paremiological genres that are created through parody (so-called antiparemias), which Jozef Mlacek pointed out. The special feature of this paremiological dictionary is the display of semantic relationships between phraseological replies that respond to the same or similar stimuli. All the mentioned semantic relationships are shown in the article with concrete paremiological expressions, their explanations of meaning and examples of usage. The article also explains to what degree the display of semantic connections between paremiological expressions affects the choice of paremiological expressions presented in the dictionary.
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Keywords: lexicographic procedure; dialect dictionary; Montenegrin dialects; determinant; macro and micro structure of the dictionary;
This paper aims to research the ways of structuring the general dictionaries of Montenegrin dialects, starting from the selection of materials, i. e. determinants, to giving examples at the end of each dictionary article, as well as to, indirectly, examine the degree to which about thirty analyzed dictionaries can define the development of Montenegrin dialect lexicography. The author has identified diversity not only in the application of the lexicographic procedure but also in the organization of the macro and micro structure of the dictionary, which is, mainly, the result of unequal expertise and training of the authors themselves, who are more often amateurs than linguists. It has been concluded that individual dictionaries, in terms of quantity and type of data, exceed the limits of a general type dictionary, that most of them meet the requirements of lexicographic work to an unequal extent, while there are also rare ones that barely meet the dictionary minimum and represent mere collections of words.
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Keywords: lexicography; linguistic geography; ethnolinguistics; folklore; mythological characters;
The article deals with the mythological vocabulary associated with folk beliefs and folklore of the peoples in South Slavic countries (the designation of mental denotations – mermaid, vampire, wolfman, dragon, witch, etc.) in the central part of South Slavia. The distribution of such vocabulary on ethnolinguistic maps is studied in comparison with its presentation in the “Dictionary of the Bosnian Language” (2010). Conclusions are drawn that the “Dictionary of the Bosnian Language” reflects the processes of gradual loss of the folk mythological vocabulary of a number of originally inherent meanings. Folklore vocabulary begins to be used in slang and vernacular speech. New meanings arise that are associated with the zoological sphere, which occurs on the basis of previously known contexts from the field of “lower” mythology and folk views on nature. The “Dictionary of the Bosnian Language” as a full-scale lexicographic work in the presented word usage, word combinations and phraseological turns reflects a number of characteristics of the mythological characters themselves, known from ethnographic literature and field ethnolinguistic records that had been done by the author.
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Keywords: Bosnian language; dictionary; Anglicism; etymology; etymon;
This paper focuses on words that the early 21st century monolingual Bosnian language dictionaries categorise as originating from the English language. The purpose of the research is to determine whether the etymology of these words has been correctly determined in these dictionaries and/or interpreted. In that respect, a comparative analysis of the corpus consisting of two monolingual dictionaries was conducted. The analysis determined that in many instances the etymological interpretation is either insufficiently precise and/or imprecise. Such reasons accentuate the need for a stronger inclusion of linguists from the field of foreign languages, in this case, English, in the process of compiling the Bosnian language dictionaries.
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Keywords: lexicographic procedure; encyclopedic information; Vuk Karadžić; South Slavic lexicography; history of lexicography;
The present paper discusses encyclopedic and other non-lexicographical information in the first edition of the Serbian Dictionary by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (Karadžić, 1818). The paper discusses the volume and the nature of such information. It furthermore explores the faith of these information in a series of dictionaries that continue the tradition established by the aforementioned Karadžić’s dictionary (i.e. Karadžić 1852, JAZU 1880-1976, САНУ 1959-, RMS 1967-1976, RSJ 2011). The paper also addresses the place of these non-lexicographic information in the present-day publications and how they gradually disappeared from the dictionaries. The corpus of non-lexicographic elements in Karadžić, 1818 encompassed only the information that would today not be considered a legitimate part of the dictionary macrostructure. This excludes various other phenomena, e.g., folk songs as examples, which would, according to good lexicographic practice of today be considered too long or dysfunctional, long-winded, and dysfunctional definitions, etc. (but still legitimate parts of the microstructure). The analysis reveals that the major turning point where non-lexicographical information start to be abandoned was JAZU 1880-1976, although some of these information can be found in later dictionaries. It has also been demonstrated that in today’s publishing practice, these information would be found in most diverse sources, from encyclopedias, to ethnographic prose to newspapers and magazines. The separation of encyclopedic from lexicographical information is seen as a consequence of the changes in establishing authority in dictionaries.
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Keywords: language and culture; cross-linguistic lexical variation; the lexicon; lexical equivalence; lexical anisomorphism;
This paper is intended for an educated general audience. It addresses lexical fields known for cross-linguistic lexical diversity. It also analyses the dimensions of global lexical variation. Cross-linguistic variation is mostly a reflection of the peculiarity of cultures served by the languages in question. The study of global lexical richness, which finds its expression in variation, is in fact a contribution to documenting global cultural diversity. In this paper, the dimensions and examples of lexical variation are presented in an accessible manner, while making references to the sources where these issues have been formally analyzed.
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