bâlbâi

Forms

bâlbâi (third-person singular present bâlbâie, past participle bâlbâit, third-person subjunctive bâlbâie) 4th conjugation^[1] Older forms are bolbăi in Cantemir and bălbui or bălbăi in Ion Ghica: „Bălbăia zapciul somnoros și speriat” “the sleepy, frightened tax collector stammered”.^[2][3][4] From 1953 to 1993 it was spelled bîlbîi.^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[4] DEX, CADE, the DA and Ciorănescu treat it as an expressive, imitative formation, of the same kind as bâjbâi;^{[5][6][3][7][8][4]} Pușcariu and Scriban start from a sound sequence ⟨bâl-bâl⟩ imitating unclear speech.^{[5][6][3][7][8][4]} DELR agrees that it fits the pattern of reduplicated expressive verbs such as dârdâi, gâlgâi and mormăi, but doubts that it was formed in Romanian, because the same b–l sequence for stammering appears in Latin balbus (“stammering”) and balbūtiō (“to stammer”), in Albanian belbër and in Proto-Slavic *bъlbati, and is probably of Indo-European age.^[4]

DELR therefore lists the other proposals: an old Slavic loan, with Tiktin comparing Old Church Slavonic бъбливъ (bŭblivŭ, “stammering”); a substrate word, compared with the Albanian; and a Romanian derivative of a form continuing the Latin adjective, as Hasdeu and Tiktin suggested.^[4][2] Wiktionary gives both the imitative origin and a Latin one.^[1] Aromanian bãlbãescu is the corresponding verb south of the Danube.^[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică of 1705, in the form bolbăi, with the sense “to speak indistinctly, repeating syllables”.^[4][2] The same work has the derivatives bâlbâitor and bâlbâitură.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used intransitively and reflexively for stammering, whether from a speech defect, emotion or nervousness, and transitively for mumbling words: Tiktin quotes Jipescu on people who mumble a few words of prayer after a meal.^[5][2][3] DA also records it of small children who cannot yet speak properly.^[3] The reflexive came to mean losing the thread and mumbling meaningless words.^[5][10] Regional senses are “to chatter”, said of a pot on the fire “to bubble”, and “to flounder in a liquid”.^[10]

Its derivatives are bâlbâit “stammering”, recorded in Creangă in 1881, the noun bâlbâială (1893), and the colloquial bâlbă “slip of the tongue, blunder”, first recorded in 1997.^[4]

Timeline

• 1705 – first record, bolbăi, with bâlbâitor and bâlbâitură, in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[4][2]
• 1881 – the adjective bâlbâit “stammering” in Creangă.^[4]
• 1893 – the noun bâlbâială.^[4]
• 1997 – the colloquial noun bâlbă “slip of the tongue”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stammer, to stutter: to pronounce sounds or words unclearly, repeating them and stumbling over them, from a defect, emotion or nervousness; intransitive, reflexive or transitive: Emoționat, s-a bâlbâit la primele cuvinte.^[5][10][1]
2. (reflexive) To lose the thread of what one is saying, to mumble meaningless words.^[5][10]
3. (regional) To chatter; of a pot on the fire, to bubble.^[10]

Word family

• bâlbâială
• bâlbâit
• bâlbâitor
• bâlbâitură
• bâlbă

Related words

• Aromanian bãlbãescu
• gângăvi

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bâlbâi
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. bâlbâi
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. bâlbâi
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 97
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. bîlbîi
7. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. bîlbîi
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 174
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 188
10. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 190