LA FRANCOPHONIE DANS LES PRINCIPAUTÉS ROUMAINES À L’ÂGE DES RÈGNES DES PHANARIOTES
FRANCOPHONIE IN THE ROMANIAN PRINCIPALITIES DURING THE REIGN OF THE PHANARIOTES

Summary/Abstract: In order to better envisage the penetration of French language and culture in Wallachia and Moldavia, a phenomenon that marked Romanian society’s entry into modernity from the early 18th century until the first decades of the 19th century, one should refer to the cultural impact of the Phanariotes’ reigns in the Romanian Principalities. The Francophonie of these Greek noblemen from Constantinople, who acted as dragomans and councilors of the sultan (allowing them, in turn, to be named reigning princes in Bucharest and Jassy), quickly became a model to the entirety of the Moldo-Wallachian high society. During their reigns, the educational institutions from the two capitals already taught French in their programs. Readings and translations from French authors increased in number, as French became not only the language of culture, but also the language of diplomacy. In the early 19th century, the Francophonie of the upper classes acted as a linguistic passport in the long process of their Europeanisation and, consequently, it facilitated the modernization of the Romanian society in its entirety.

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