ABSTRACT. The second part of Alecsandri’s grammar (1863), entitled Vocabulary, continues the tradition of older grammars, which, in addition to the actual compartment of morphosyntax, also included lexical sequence, organized by onomasiological criteria. Micu-Șincai (and I. Piuariu-Molnar, 1788, had done the same, and the model is perpetuated by some grammar authors in the second half of the 19th century (for example, by Ioan Doncev, 1865). Here we present some features of the Romanian standard language, illustrated through Alecsandri’s choice of a minimal vocabulary that represents the Romanian domestic and social microuniverse, the main activities including eating habits, in contrastive dynamics.

Keywords: Romanian grammars; Vasile Alecsandri; standard language; regional variants; process of adaptation; food-specific vocabulary