Vasile Burlă

Born in Opăițeni, a village in the District of Bukovina that today is part of Ukraine, he attended primary school in nearby Storojineț.

[1] Burlă joined Junimea society in 1870; he was considered a leading member and an important collaborator of its magazine, Convorbiri Literare, where he published a number of articles on philology, as well as polemics.

Together with Miron Pompiliu and Pavel Paicu, he formed part of a "Latinist" group from Transylvania and Bukovina that had been steeped in the Latin language as the basis of its cultural outlook.

After the departure for Bucharest of society patron Titu Maiorescu, Burlă formed part of a circle (together with Ștefan Vârgolici, Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol, Alexandru Lambrior and Pompiliu) that met at the home of Iacob Negruzzi in order to simplify the orthographical standards of 1865.

He became notorious for a running debate with Junimea rival Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu on the etymology of the word rață ("duck").