SCIENTIFIC REPORT
on the initial stage (September – December 2020) of the project
PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-0832, Istro-Romanian and Istro-Romanians. Legacy and Heritage
I. Summary of the initial stage
The activities and objectives set for this stage were:
• updating the bibliography and literature on Romanian and Romance dialectology (monographs, dialectal glossaries, dialectal atlases), as well as on phonetics and phonology (to be able to compare standard vs. regional Eastern Romance varieties);
• documentation at academic or university libraries from Romania and from abroad (free access);
• setting contacts with local (Istro-Romanian) authorities and people with whom we would like to collaborate to carry out our field work;
• organizing seminars every other week with all members of the team, at “Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti” Institute of Linguistics or, because of the covid-19 pandemic, online; each team member present their progress within the project and any possible issues are solved;
• participation in at least three international conferences (organized in Romania) with the preliminary results of our research.
Against the above, we observed and met all the activities and objectives undertaken herein, with the following notes:
– due to the covid-19 pandemic, we were only able to physically access the library of “Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti” Institute of Linguistics, as well as virtual libraries across the globe (with free access);
– we exceeded the set number of 3 participations in conferences, as the team members participated in a total of 8 conferences (see below);
– although, due to time limits, we did not set any publications for this stage, we were able to publish two articoles in an ISI-indexed academic journal (see below).
II. Scientific and technical description
Despite the covid-19 pandemic, all team members worked intensely and passionately to observe all the terms of the project. To diminish the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus, face-to-face meetings were rarer and rarer, but not with less frequency, as we used the online platforms (for our every other week meetings and for more specific situations).
The members of the team participated in a series of international conferences, held both in Romania and abroad, as follows:
- Geană, Ionuț, Genitives and Possessives in Istro-Romanian. A corpus-based analysis, at Cel de-al XIX-lea Simpozion Internațional de Dialectologie, 10-11 September 2020, Cluj‑Napoca (online).
- Corbeanu, Ramona-Cătălina, Structuri discontinue: limba română veche vs. istroromâna, at Cel de-al XIX-lea Simpozion Internațional de Dialectologie, 10-11 September 2020, Cluj‑Napoca (online).
- Geană, Ionuț,Ordinea constituenților în grupul nominal din istroromână. Analiză de corpus, at Simpozionul internațional Identitate și ideologie. Limba și literatura română în paradigma culturală contemporană. A XIX-a ediție a Simpozionului anual internațional al Institutului de Filologie Română „A. Philippide”, 16-18 September 2020, Iași (online).
- Geană, Ionuț, The Morphosyntax of Istro-Romanian DPs, la Anglia Ruskin Cambridge Romance Linguistics Seminar, Universitatea din Cambridge, UK, 9 October 2020 (online).
- Geană, Ionuț, Cătălina Ilie, The Morphosyntax of Pronominal Clitics in Istro‑Romanian, at Al 20-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică: Limba română – modernitate și continuitate în cercetarea lingvistică, 20–21 November 2020, Bucharest (online).
- Dragomirescu, Adina, Alexandru Nicolae, VP-ellipsis in Istro-Romanian, la Al 20-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică: Limba română – modernitate și continuitate în cercetarea lingvistică, 20–21 noiembrie 2020, Bucharest (online).
- Nicolaie, Larisa,Allophones of the /a/ Vowel in Istro-Romanian. An acoustic analysis, at Al 20-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică: Limba română – modernitate și continuitate în cercetarea lingvistică, 20–21 noiembrie 2020, Bucharest (online).
- Corbeanu, Ramona-Cătălina, Conjunctivul în istroromână. Statutul lui „neca”, at Al 20-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică: Limba română – modernitate și continuitate în cercetarea lingvistică, 20–21 noiembrie 2020, Bucharest (online).
Despite the very short time since the start of the project, we managed to submit and two articles, that were published in a very well-indexed academic journal:
- Geană, Ionuț, Case Marking in Istro-Romanian, in Studia UBB Philologia, LXV, 4/2020, p. 173-187.
- Dragomirescu, Adina, Alexandru Nicolae, Particular Features of Istro-Romanian Pronominal Clitics, in Studia UBB Philologia, LXV, 4/2020, p. 147-158.
We conclude that, against the objectives set for this initial stage, we successfully observed everything we undertook (and even beyond), and the results of our research were disseminated in conferences and publications by the team members.
SCIENTIFIC REPORT
on stage 2 (unique) (January – December 2021) of the project
PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-0832, Istro-Romanian and Istro-Romanians. Legacy and Heritage
I. Summary of the this stage
The activities and objectives set for this stage were:
- field work for at least two team members at the communities where Istro-Romanian is still (actively) spoken;
- setting the phonological system of Istro-Romanian and a comparison with standard and regional Romanian and/or other Romance (inventory of phonemes: consonants, vowels, semiconsonants, and semivowels); establishing the allophones of each phoneme, and identifying the contexts / structures / conditions which allow or require the realisation of these allophones; setting the phonetic inventory of each subvariety (north vs. south); approaching the phenomena in the framework of Optimality Theory (syllable structure; restrictions on occupying syllable nodes: syllable onset, nucleus and coda; stress and intonation);
- setting the case system of Istro-Romanian; describing the nominal domain;
- clitics and cliticization in Istro-Romanian;
- main issues with IR verb system;
- at least three stages of documentation in foreign libraries of prestigious universities or other prestigious public libraries (for examples, the British Library);
- dissemination of the results of our research, by participation in conferences and symposia organised in Romania and abroad (at least 5 abroad);
- organizing a workshop in Bucharest (in the last trimester of 2021), whose proceedings will be published in a dedicated issue of an indexed linguistic journal (as mentioned above);
- publishing the partial outcomes of the research in IDB journals and publications.
Against these, we carried out and met (in part or in full) all the activities and objectives undertaken herein, with the following notes:
- Ionuț Geană, Adina Dragomirescu, Ramona-Cătălina Corbeanu and Larisa Nicolaie carried out field work at the Istro-Romanians in Croatia during August-September 2021;
- because of the pandemic, we accessed more the resources available at the library of Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti” al Academiei Române, as well as other virtual libraries (with free access) from Romanian and from abroad; research travels at foreign libraries were carried out by the project leader (May-June, USA) and by four (of the five) team members (August-September, Croatia);
- we organized a mini-symposium in collaboration with the American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences (Los Angeles, USA).
- the team plans to organize another mini-symposium in the spring of 2022.
II. Scientific and technical description
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, all members worked intensively and passionately to meet all the terms of the projects. To diminish the risk of spreading the new coronavirus, the face-to-face meetings were rarer, but not less frequent, as we switched to online platforms for our bimonthly meetings, or for various more specific situations).
All team members participated with a series of talks and conferences in Romania and abroad (all of which were online, due to the pandemic), as follows:
- Geană, Ionuț, Ramona-Cătălina Corbeanu, Complementizers in Istro-Romanian, at the Annual International Conference of the English Department 22 (AICED 22), Facultatea de Limbi și Literaturi Străine, University of Bucharest (3-5 June 2021).
- Geană, Ionuț, Topica în istroromână. Observații pe baza cercetărilor recente de teren (august, septembrie 2021), at Al 21-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de lingvistică: Orientări actuale în lingvistica teoretică și aplicată, Facultatea de Litere, University of Bucharest (19–20 November 2021).
- Geană, Ionuț, Ramona-Cătălina Corbeanu, Adina Dragomirescu, Larisa Nicolaie, Istro- Romanian and Istro-Romanians. Legacy and Heritage. Two case studies: 1) Allophones of a and e; 2) Double complementizers, at ARA 4th Mini-Symposium, “Istro-Romanian: Current State of Research”, organized by the American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti”, 15 October 2021 (Zoom).
- Dragomirescu, Adina, „Word order in Istro-Romanian. New data”, Romance Linguistics Circle, University of Cambridge, 30 November 2021.
- Dragomirescu, Adina, Alexandru Nicolae, „Istro-Romanian auxiliaries are not clitics: empirical evidence and theoretical consequences”, The 22th Annual International Conference of the English Department, University of Bucharest, 3-5 June 2021.
- Corbeanu, Ramona Cătălina; Cătălina, Ilie, „Subordonata relativă în Istroromână”, Al 21-lea Colocviu Internaţional al Departamentului de Lingvistică, Bucharest, 19-20 November 2021.
- Nicolaie, Larisa-Florentina, „Noi date asupra sistemului vocalic din istroromână”, Al 21-lea colocviu internațional al departamentului de lingvistică: Orientări actuale în lingvistica teoretică și aplicată, Bucureşti, 19–20 November 2021.
- Nicolaie, Larisa-Florentina, „Laterals in consonant clusters in Istro-Romanian”, The 22nd Annual International Conference of the English Department, Universitatea din București, 3-5 June 2021.
- Cătălina, Ilie, „A comparative perspective of pronominal clitic in Istro-Romanian and Old Daco-Romanian”, AICED-22 – THE 22nd annual International Conference of the English department, 3-5 June 2021.
- Cătălina, Ilie, „Poziția cliticelor pronominale din istroromână”, Conferința Internațională Anuală a Facultății de Limbi și Literaturi Străine, Bucharest, 26-27 November 2021.
Although we submitted five papers for publications, this year only one article was published, with the others being in various stages of the editorial process:
- Dragomirescu, Adina, Nicolae, Alexandru, Romance and Croatian in contact: non-clitic auxiliaries in Istro-Romanian, Languages, 6, 4, 187, 2021 https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6040187
The project leader organized through the American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences (USA) in collaboration with Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti” a mini-symposium titled Istro-Romanian: Current State of Research, on 15 October 2021, with presentations delivered by famous linguists, as well as significant representatives of local (Croatian) Istro-Romanian communities. Here is the programme of the conference:
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7-7:10 AM PST (LA)
15-15:10 (London)
16-16:10 (Rijeka)
17-17:10 (Bucharest) |
Welcome |
Ileana Costea, PhD., Professor Emeritus California State University, Northridge (CSUN), ARA Interim President Dr. Ionuț Geană, Organizer, Institute of Linguistics/University of Bucharest Hon. Dr. Cosmin Dumitrescu, Consul General of Romania in Los Angeles
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7:10-7:40 AM PST (LA)
15:10-15:40 (London)
16:10-16:40 (Rijeka)
17:10-17:40 (Bucharest)
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Infinitival clauses and language contact in Vlashki/Zheyanski (Istro‑Romanian)
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Dr. Zvjezdana Vrzić, New York University/University of Rijeka |
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7:40-8:10 AM PST (LA)
15:40-16:10 (London)
16:40-17:10 (Rijeka)
17:40-18:10 (Bucharest)
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Vlaški and Žejanski Language in the Cultural Kaleidoscope of Istria
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Ms. Viviana Brkarić, MEc, Vlashki Muzej Puti Dr. Robert Doričić, University of Rijeka |
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8:10-8:40 AM PST (LA)
16:10-16:40 (London)
17:10-17:40 (Rijeka)
18:10-18:40 (Bucharest) |
ISTROX – the challenges of dialect fieldwork by proxy
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Dr. Martin Maiden, University of Oxford Dr. Oana Uță Bărbulescu, University of Oxford/University of Bucharest
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8:40-9:10 AM PST (LA)
16:40-17:10 (London)
17:40-18:10 (Rijeka)
18:40-19:10 (Bucharest)
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Istro-Romanian and Istro‑Romanians. Legacy and Heritage. Two case studies: 1) Allophones of a and e; 2) Double complementizers |
Dr. Ionuț Geană, Institute of Linguistics/University of Bucharest Dr. Adina Dragomirescu, Institute of Linguistics/University of Bucharest Dr. Cătălina Corbeanu, Institute of Linguistics/University of Bucharest Ms. Larisa Nicolaie, MA, PhD Candidate, Institute of Linguistics/University of Bucharest
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9:10-9:20 PST (LA)
17:10-17:20 (London)
18:10-18:20 (Rijeka)
19:10-19:20 (Bucharest) |
Closing Session |
Dr. Ionuț Geană, Organizer, Institute of Linguistics/University of Bucharest Ileana Costea, PhD., Professor Emeritus California State University, Northridge (CSUN), ARA Interim President |
FINAL SCIENTIFIC REPORT
of project PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-0832 https://lingv.ro/pn-iii-p1-1-1-te-2019-0832/
- Planned and met objectives
As per the financing application, we undertook the following objectives, which were met as follows:
(O1) New collection of texts/data, in order to develop and publish a new corpus of Istro-Romanian (as spoken in Croatia and by the diaspora: following the team’s field trips, we gathered a considerable amount of digital recordings with native Istro-Romanian speakers. Processing these digital recordings will take a while due to technical matters, but the plan is to publish a selection of digital texts with free access.
(O2) Updated Istro-Romanian vocabulary: given the idiolectal diversity and constant bilingualism across Istro-Romanian speakers, one of the challenges was to differentiate loan words from code switching situations. Sometimes, speakers would start a sentence in Istro-Romanian, but they would finish it in Croatian or use Croatian words/wording. Nevertheless, with the help of a local speaker, we managed to draft a list of words and collocations which we also intend to publish as a study.
(O3) Descriptive account of word order in Istro-Romanian: our list of publications and conferences include countless references to word order. The global description of Istro-Romanian word order is a special chapter in the project’s volume, which we are still currently work on.
(O4) Linguistic questionnaires: we drafted and used a series of questionnaire to cover answers for some theoretical questions and/or assumptions.
Also, in the financing application we undertook to increase the impact of our research, and we had the following results:
- Organizing a workshop in Bucharest in 2021: we organized, due to the pandemic, an online workshop in 2021, and we had a second workshop in person in September 2022. Therefore, we managed to organize two workshops, more than initially scheduled. At this year’s workshop (September 29-30, 2022), one of the keynote speakers was the reputed Romance linguistics Professor Michele Loporcaro, of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, who has worked extensively on Istro-Romanian.
- Editing the proceedings of the workshop in a dedicated peer-review journal: due to the pandemic, a lot of academic journals have been issued with considerable delays. The proceedings of the symposium within which the workshop was organized this year will be published in a volume probably next year.
- Team members’ participation in at least 8 international conferences: this figure has been surpassed, despite the pandemic. See the list of conferences for each year.
- Submitting at least 5 papers in peer-reviewed academic journals: we exceeded this figure. See the list of publications for each year.
(v) writing a collective volume: we are working on it, and we have already received the acceptance for publication with a highly prestigious academic publishing house in Europe. Nevertheless, the editorial process takes a very long time.
(vi) use the results of our research in teaching: by the invitation we received to disseminate the results of our research, we have gained the interest of a young generation of linguists, who have decided to write their BA or MA paper on Istro-Romanian.
To add the above, here is a detailed version of our results. Our research team has the following publications (we have not included articles and chapters submitted or accepted, and yet unpublished). But for one (1. Dragomirescu, Adina, Nicolae, Alexandru, Romance and Croatian in contact: non-clitic auxiliaries in Istro-Romanian, Languages, 6, 4, 187, 2021 https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6040187), all our publications are in ISI journals:
– in 2020:
- Geană, Ionuț, Case Marking in Istro-Romanian, in Studia UBB Philologia, LXV, 4/2020, p. 173-187.
- Dragomirescu, Adina, Alexandru Nicolae, Particular Features of Istro-Romanian Pronominal Clitics, in Studia UBB Philologia, LXV, 4/2020, p. 147-15
– in 2021:
- Geană, Ionuț, Ordinea constituenților în istroromână. Analiză de corpus, in Philologica Jassyensia, XVII, 2 (34), 2021, p. 37-48.
– in 2022:
- Ramona Cătălina Corbeanu, Ionuț Geană, „On the Use of Complementisers in Istro- Romanian”, in Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Philologia, 67/2022, nr. 1, p. 71-86.
The team also gave talks at a series of conferences, as follows:
– in 2020:
1. Geană, Ionuț, Genitives and Possessives in Istro-Romanian. A corpus-based analysis, at Cel de-al XIX-lea Simpozion Internațional de Dialectologie, 10-11 September 2020, Cluj‑Napoca (online).
2. Corbeanu, Ramona-Cătălina, Structuri discontinue: limba română veche vs. istroromâna, at Cel de-al XIX-lea Simpozion Internațional de Dialectologie, 10-11 September 2020, Cluj‑Napoca (online).
3. Geană, Ionuț,Ordinea constituenților în grupul nominal din istroromână. Analiză de corpus, at Simpozionul internațional Identitate și ideologie. Limba și literatura română în paradigma culturală contemporană. A XIX-a ediție a Simpozionului anual internațional al Institutului de Filologie Română „A. Philippide”, 16-18 September 2020, Iași (online).
4. Geană, Ionuț, The Morphosyntax of Istro-Romanian DPs, la Anglia Ruskin Cambridge Romance Linguistics Seminar, Universitatea din Cambridge, UK, 9 October 2020 (online).
5. Geană, Ionuț, Cătălina Ilie, The Morphosyntax of Pronominal Clitics in Istro‑Romanian, at Al 20-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică: Limba română – modernitate și continuitate în cercetarea lingvistică, 20–21 November 2020, Bucharest (online).
6. Dragomirescu, Adina, Alexandru Nicolae, VP-ellipsis in Istro-Romanian, la Al 20-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică: Limba română – modernitate și continuitate în cercetarea lingvistică, 20–21 noiembrie 2020, Bucharest (online).
7. Nicolaie, Larisa,Allophones of the /a/ Vowel in Istro-Romanian. An acoustic analysis, at Al 20-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică: Limba română – modernitate și continuitate în cercetarea lingvistică, 20–21 noiembrie 2020, Bucharest (online).
8. Corbeanu, Ramona-Cătălina, Conjunctivul în istroromână. Statutul lui „neca”, at Al 20-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică: Limba română – modernitate și continuitate în cercetarea lingvistică, 20–21 noiembrie 2020, Bucharest (online).
– in 2021:
1. Geană, Ionuț, Ramona-Cătălina Corbeanu, Complementizers in Istro-Romanian, at the Annual International Conference of the English Department 22 (AICED 22), Facultatea de Limbi și Literaturi Străine, University of Bucharest (3-5 June 2021).
2. Geană, Ionuț, Topica în istroromână. Observații pe baza cercetărilor recente de teren (august, septembrie 2021), at Al 21-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de lingvistică: Orientări actuale în lingvistica teoretică și aplicată, Facultatea de Litere, University of Bucharest (19–20 November 2021).
3. Geană, Ionuț, Ramona-Cătălina Corbeanu, Adina Dragomirescu, Larisa Nicolaie, Istro- Romanian and Istro-Romanians. Legacy and Heritage. Two case studies: 1) Allophones of a and e; 2) Double complementizers, at ARA 4th Mini-Symposium, “Istro-Romanian: Current State of Research”, organized by the American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti”, 15 October 2021 (Zoom).
4. Dragomirescu, Adina, „Word order in Istro-Romanian. New data”, Romance Linguistics Circle, University of Cambridge, 30 November 2021.
5. Dragomirescu, Adina, Alexandru Nicolae, „Istro-Romanian auxiliaries are not clitics: empirical evidence and theoretical consequences”, The 22th Annual International Conference of the English Department, University of Bucharest, 3-5 June 2021.
6. Corbeanu, Ramona Cătălina; Cătălina, Ilie, „Subordonata relativă în Istroromână”, Al 21-lea Colocviu Internaţional al Departamentului de Lingvistică, Bucharest, 19-20 November 2021.
7. Nicolaie, Larisa-Florentina, „Noi date asupra sistemului vocalic din istroromână”, Al 21-lea colocviu internațional al departamentului de lingvistică: Orientări actuale în lingvistica teoretică și aplicată, Bucureşti, 19–20 November 2021.
8. Nicolaie, Larisa-Florentina, „Laterals in consonant clusters in Istro-Romanian”, The 22nd Annual International Conference of the English Department, Universitatea din București, 3-5 June 2021.
9. Cătălina, Ilie, „A comparative perspective of pronominal clitic in Istro-Romanian and Old Daco-Romanian”, AICED-22 – THE 22nd annual International Conference of the English department, 3-5 June 2021.
10. Cătălina, Ilie, „Poziția cliticelor pronominale din istroromână”, Conferința Internațională Anuală a Facultății de Limbi și Literaturi Străine, Bucharest, 26-27 November 2021.
– in 2022:
- Ramona Cătălina Corbeanu, Ionuț Geană, Word Order in Istro-Romanian Subordinate Clauses, The 23rd Annual International Conference of the English Department University of Bucharest, 2-4 June 2022, București.
- Ramona Cătălina Corbeanu, Ionuț Geană, Adjuncți propoziționali în istroromână versus româna veche, XXX Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes (XXX CILPR), 4-9 July 2022, La Laguna,
- Ramona Cătălina Corbeanu, Modalitatea în istroromână, Al Optulea Simpozion
Internațional de Lingvistică, 29-30 September 2022, București.
- Ionuț Geană, Cătălina Ilie, Semiadverbele în istroromână, Al Optulea Simpozion
Internațional de Lingvistică, 29-30 September 2022, București.
- Adina Dragomirescu, Alexandru Nicolae, Influența contactului lingvistic asupra Adjectivele în istroromână, Al Optulea Simpozion Internațional de Lingvistică, 29-30 September 2022, București.
- Ionuț Geană, Cătălina Ilie, Expressions of pronominal subjects in Istro-Romanian, The 23rd Annual International Conference of the English Department University of Bucharest, 2-4 June 2022, București.
- Ionuț Geană, Istro-Romanian and Istro-Romanians. Legacy and Heritage, Conferințele Lectoratului de limba română de la Universitatea Liberă din Bruxelles, 21 September
- Ionuț Geană, Istroromâna: patrimoniu lingvistic și cultural, ASRAN – Asociația Scriitorilor de limba română din America de Nord (USA), 29 January
- Larisa Nicolaie, Realizările fonemului /i/ în istroromână, Al Optulea Simpozion Internațional de Lingvistică, 29-30 September 2022, București.
- Presentation of obtained results, indicators of obtained results
Following the implementation of our project, we obtained the following result indicators (for details, please see the previous section):
– in 2020:
Articles published in ISI journals: 2
Conferences: 8
– in 2021
Articles published in journals indexed in international databases: 1
Conferences: 10
– in 2022
Articles published in ISI journals: 2
Articles accepted for publication in ISI journals ISI: 3
Conferences: 9
- Estimated impact of obtained results, underlining the most significant obtained result
Our project was important from several perspectives, and the impact of our research can be quantified at several levels. First and foremost, the topic of our research steered the interest of Romanian and international researchers, on the one hand, and of a new generation of linguists, on the other hand, to study Istro-Romanian and, in a broader sense, Romance linguistics. The articles we published and the talks we gave proved successful on each occasion, and all the team received congratulations and encouragements to continue our research past this project, especially since Istro-Romanian is severely endangered. It will definitely remain a topic for our future research.
The most significant result we believe to be covering the lack of studies on Istro-Romanian across Romance linguistics. The Eastern Romance picture is more clearly defined now owing to our work, also considering our publications in English which makes access to data easier for all interested researchers and specialists. Last but not least, the invitation from a prestigious publishing house in Europe to publish with them an Istro-Romanian grammar is a success (although the process will take a while due to editorial aspects).
To sum up with, we believe we have met all the objectives undertaken in the financing application. Any delays to the original planning are mostly due to the pandemic, as well as to the editorial process (for example, an article submitted and accepted for publication in 2020, was published in March 2022, although the issue was supposed to be out in early 2021).
Project director, conf. dr. Ionuț Geană