Rome, roman, romance

First published 20 September 2010 @ just some words

All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Monty Python’s Life of Brian

It’s a very good question, but for now, let us look just at the word “Roman”.

In English, “roman” refers to a type “of a plain upright kind used in ordinary print” (OED). Rome may be in Italy but the antonym of this kind of “roman” is italic. The antonym of “roman” as in roman numerals is, of course, arabic. (I have no idea whether and how it is possible to combine these adjectives. Can one describe the upright arabic numerals as “roman arabic”?) In many European countries, Roman (or Роман) is a rather common given name.

The Latin word for “Roman” was Romanus. Its descendant, român, gave the name to Romanians and Romania. In many languages, the noun roman means “novel”. What is the Roman connection? It seems that modern roman got the name from Romance novel, the literary genre descended from mediaeval romance. According to Wiktionary, French roman is derived

From Old French romanz [“common language (as opposed to Latin)”], from Vulgar Latin romanice [“in the way of the Romans (as opposed to the Franks)”]. The meaning “common language” changed into “book in common language” and then into “adventure novel”.

Wikipedia adds:

In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a marked tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love, such as faithfulness in adversity.

In French, the adjective roman refers both to Romanesque style (art roman) and Romance, as in Romance languages (langues romanes), the language family that includes French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Romanian, as well as Romansh and Romagnol. (It has nothing to do with Romani language spoken by Roma.) The Russian word роман also stands for love affair, i.e. romance. In music, romance is a type of ballad originally sung in a Romance language. The Spanish phrase hablar en romance means “to speak clearly”, as opposed to hablar en griego, “to talk double Dutch” (literally, “to speak Greek”).

	city	citizen	adjective	art style	language	♫♩ genre	♥ affair	fiction
English	Rome	Roman	Roman	Romanesque	Romance	romance	romance	novel
French	Rome	Romain	romain	roman	roman	romance	romance	roman
German	Rom	Römer	römische	Romanik	romanische	Romanze	Romanze	Roman
Italian	Roma	Romano	romano	romanico	romanzo	romanza	romanzo	romanzo
Portuguese	Roma	romano	romano	românico	românico	romance	romance	romance
Russian	Рим	римлянин	римский	романский	романский	романс	роман	роман
Spanish	Roma	romano	romano	románico	romance	romanza	romance	novela

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

a film by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones

The Holy Grail may be not as coherent as Life of Brian; it is more like Monty Python’s Flying Circus, a series of rather disjoint sketches interspersed with crazy animations of Terry Gilliam and shouts of “get on with it”. I have this two-disc box set, with the second DVD full of assorted junk including the LEGO version of Knights of the Round Table song (with a guest appearance of the ex-parrot). Still, I prefer the original: you can’t do facial expressions with LEGO.

We’re Knights of the Round Table We dance whene’er we’re able We do routines and chorus scenes With footwork impeccAble. We dine well here in Camelot, We eat ham and jam and spam a lot. We’re Knights of the Round Table Our shows are formidAble But many times we’re given rhymes That are quite unsingAble We’re opera mad in Camelot We sing from the diaphragm a lot. In war we’re tough and able, Quite indefatigAble. Between our quests we sequin vests And impersonate Clark Gable. It’s a busy life in Camelot... I have to push the pram a lot.

P.S. 2024. I went to Filmoteca de Cantabria to see this film, for the first time in my life, on a big screen. It was shown as a part of the Arthurian legend cycle and free of charge at that. Perhaps this could explain a great number of primary school-age children in the audience whose parents, evidently, thought the movie was age-appropriate. The Knights of the Round Table song, as expected, was met with loud laughter. The adventures of Sir Galahad in the Castle Anthrax provoked a slew of ¿Qué? from the kids just behind me; immediately after, some of them were led away.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian

a film by Terry Jones

This was the first Monty Python’s film I ever seen (back in 1996, on the telly and from the middle). I still think it is the best (certainly, most coherent, but also funniest) of Python’s feature movies. 30 years on, it remains funny even though I doubt that today it would cause such furore as it did at the time. You never know — Wikipedia says that “some bans <of the film> continued into the 21st century”.