His advocacy of phonetic spelling was cherished by a group of writers and activists which put out Viața Românească magazine; they also shared Philippide's Germanophilia, which manifested itself in particular during the political debates that preceded Romania's entry into World War I.

Unlike the other Germanophiles, Philippide spent the second half of the war at Iași, which, following a series of major defeats, endured as the capital of a rump Romanian state.

His major work, which appeared in two hefty volumes in 1925 and 1928, brings together a wide range of ancient sources and linguistic evidence to analyze the ethnogenesis of the Romanians and the development of their language.

[8] Returning to teach high school after his German stint,[5] Philippide stirred controversy as a flamboyant, unortohodox educator, relying on oratory and reading his students samples from Moftul Român, a satirical magazine.

[9] His final class included several who became figures of importance in 20th-century Romania: political activist Leon Ghelerter, journalist Emil Fagure, novelist Dimitrie D. Pătrășcanu, poet Avram Steuerman-Rodion, and an advice columnist, Doctor Ygrec.

The latter recalled that Philippide, a "tiny, minuscule man", would reach greatness whenever he recited the poetry of Mihai Eminescu, managing to stir in all of them the passion for high literature.

[19] The second work, targeted at a specialist audience,[22] was not intended as a textbook but as a means to show Romanian grammar as it existed in reality; this was in contrast with Tiktin's 1891 teaching manual.

[14] In his writing, he insisted on phonetic spelling, a principle that arose not only out of his linguistic theory, but also from his study of anthropology, which led him to believe that "naturalness" should lie at the heart of language, as well as morality, society and art.

[34] The elder Philippide drew a sharp distinction between science, which he regarded as the province of manly, knowledge-seeking personalities; and literature, particularly poetry, which for him was an unserious activity for sensitive small minds.

In December 1898, he wrote a letter to Junimea founder Titu Maiorescu, telling him that his creation had "degenerated" beyond recognition: "joke has turned to buffoonery, sally to insanity, liberty to anarchy.

"[36] His time at Junimea did not leave a significant impact on his thinking: it was for him primarily a means of access to high society and developing useful connections with prominent figures capable of helping him advance.

[41] In 1902, at Constantin Stere's urging, Philippide joined the anti-Junimist National Liberal Party, but retained amiable or even friendly ties to Junimea figures, particularly Maiorescu.

[37] An independent thinker and committed individualist, characterized by moral intransigence, a lucid critic of his era and of his country's negative aspects, Philippide refused to be pigeonholed into a single ideological current, thus occupying a rare position for the time.

The academy and King Carol wanted a normal, functional, barebones dictionary, while Philippide preferred an exhaustive compilation of the lexis, "a Littré for the Romanians"[48] (although he eventually dropped entries on proper nouns).

[50] Alongside Stere, Philippide was a founding member and mentor of Viața Românească magazine, which, according to his own linguistic norms, was written in conscious contrast to the official spelling directives from the academy.

"[53] Uninterested in adopting others' opinions, with a penchant for discipline and thoroughness acquired in Germany, Philippide became an adept of Stoicism, which accounts for his emphasis on ethical values, above all honesty.

[55] Analyzing his style, particularly as found in his correspondence, philologist Cristina Florescu categorizes Philippide as a late Romantic, displaying "impetuosity, idealism, a longing for a vanished time, imprudent and abrupt gestures", his flourishes meshing with his "elevated consciousness of Romanian realities".

"[59] According to Kirileanu, Philippide was cheerful only "because he wants to make others happy"; his scatological jokes, however, were perfectly suited to annoy "the delicate aristocrats", Simion Mehedinți and Matei B.

He passionately underscored what he considered Weigand's shortcomings as a person, accusing him of lacking objectivity and even of intrigue, claiming he sent letters to magazines in order to stop publication of articles by professional rivals.

He brings critical analysis to the works of Herodotus, Polybius, Appian, Strabo, Ptolemy and Cassius Dio, focusing on their writings about Dacia and the northern Balkans.

At the same time, he details the Latin inscriptions found in the Balkans, paying close attention to Procopius' De aedificiis but also to other material in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.

[68] Philippide calculates the length and intensity of Romanization in various parts of the Balkans and documents the ethnic migrations that took place throughout the Middle Ages between the north and south banks of the Danube.

His conclusions retain general acceptance: that commonalities between the two languages are not due to borrowing by the ancestors of the Romanians from early Albanian, or vice versa, but arise from an ancient substrate.

Later research using discoveries in archaeology and numismatics that had not yet been made in Philippide's day cast doubt on his hypothesis that the Roman population of Dacia withdrew south of the Danube during the reign of Emperor Gallienus.

[5] Nevertheless, although he reached the mandatory retirement age in 1929, he received three successive exemptions that allowed him to remain on the faculty;[76] as recalled by his university colleague Traian Bratu, he continued to teach, braving both his disease and the hostility of those who resented his theories.

"[53] His obituary, noting his "long and debilitating suffering", announced his funeral service at Saint Spyridon Church, and subsequent burial at Eternitatea cemetery, both set for August 15.

[80] The ceremony, presided upon by the Orthodox priest Ioan Țincoca, included funeral orations by sociologist Petre Andrei, who represented the Romanian government team, and novelist Mihail Sadoveanu.

The south-Danubian ethnogenesis hypothesis proposed in Originea românilor provoked long-term fury among a wide variety of uncultured nationalists, while philologists who had their own ethnic-based prejudices summarily dismissed Philippide's view.

[75] Pascu, Ibrăileanu and Iordan took up his ideas on literary language, but it was Ivănescu who subjected them to a detailed critical analysis and developed his own theory by synthesizing Philippide's with linguistic idealism.

[89] Two Iași sites associated with Philippide are listed as historic monuments by Romania's Culture Ministry: his house, now a laboratory used by the city's medical university; and his grave in Eternitatea.