PHILORD - Epistemic and Methodological Convergence Strategies in Philological Research in Romania and the Republic of Moldova

Achieved results

     The results achieved at the completion of the project by the PHILORD team, comprising eight researchers from Romania and eight from the Republic of Moldova, are consistent with the objectives set out in the original funding proposal. It should be noted, however, that for the majority of these objectives, the initially established performance indicators were exceeded, either quantitatively or qualitatively.

     a) Two critical editions
     While the original proposal envisaged only the re-edition in the Latin alphabet and the online publication of two volumes: Theodor Stamati’s Disionăraș de cuvinte tehnice și altele greu de înțeles, published in the transitional alphabet in 1851, and the first volume of the Atlasul lingvistic moldovenesc, printed in Cyrillic script in 1968, the project ultimately delivered two critical editions of these works. This involved a considerably greater workload for the two teams of linguists (lexicographers and dialectologists) involved in the research. In addition, in order to produce these critical editions, the project’s computer scientists developed two dedicated software applications for the online presentation of the dictionary and atlas volume, including specialized fonts, e.g. the "Stamati Tranzitie".

     b) Articles and conference presentations
     Compared with the six articles and eight conference presentations initially planned, seven articles were published during the 28-month project period, with a further four currently in press, while 41 conference presentations were delivered. It should also be noted that the results obtained within the project were disseminated through additional presentations by members of the team addressing topics related to the PHILORD project, such as the digitalization of Romanian philological research.

     c) The PHILORD platform
     The PHILORD platform was structured around the two scientific components of the project: the Atlas and the Dictionary.
     With regard to the Atlas component, the primary objective was to develop a functional web portal with a coherent visual design, adapted to the requirements of the project. The platform integrates technologies for structuring and presenting content (HTML/CSS), together with dynamic functionalities developed using PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and Leaflet. The implemented web portal allows users to select, search, load, alternatively display, and compare atlas maps, providing a functional solution for the online consultation of digitized cartographic material.
     For the Dictionary component, the web interface provides a single search field with instant updating of the results. Users can select the layer in which to perform the search, the Latin alphabet (interpretive transcription) or the transitional alphabet (the original text), and can further refine the results according to article type (headword or variant) or by a specific semantic field: analytical definition, synonymous definition, antonymic definition, cross-reference, collocation, etymology, or title. Each of the 4,290 articles in the digital dictionary is presented across three parallel layers: the interpretive transcription; the text in the transitional alphabet, rendered using the "Stamati Tranzitie" font developed within the project to faithfully reproduce the letters and ligatures of the 1851 typeface; and a facsimile of the original page, with the relevant article highlighted.

     d) Exchange of good practices and knowledge transfer
     This objective, which had a strong training and capacity-building dimension, was achieved through two years of intensive collaboration between the two research teams from Romania and the Republic of Moldova. This collaboration took place continuously through remote, online work, as well as through five research and documentation visits organized within the project at the "Alexandru Philippide" Institute of Romanian Philology of the Romanian Academy, Iași Branch. For the linguists from the Republic of Moldova, the PHILORD project provided a high-level academic environment and, at the same time, a highly valuable opportunity to develop expertise in the digitization of essential research tools within their field, particularly dictionaries and linguistic atlases. This experience contributed visibly to the development of their professional expertise and, consequently, to enhancing both the quality and the complexity of specialized research conducted at the partner institution, the "Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu" Institute of Romanian Philology of the Moldova State University.