Discover

'Moldovan' (also 'Moldavian') is the official name for the Romanian language in the Republic of Moldova and in its breakaway territory of Transnistria.^[1][2] The Constitution of Moldova (Title I, Article 13) states that the Moldovan language is the official language of the country.^[3] In Moldova's Declaration of Independence the same language is called Romanian^[4]. Linguists consider standard Moldovan to be identical to standard Romanian, and many Moldovan officials and official bodies do or have done so as well.Omniglot http://www.omniglot.com/writing/moldovan.htm
"Moldovan" (''graiul moldovenesc'', in older sources ''limba moldovenească'') can also refer to a northern variety of colloquial Romanian approximately within the territory of the former Principality of Moldavia (now split between Moldova and Romania). There is no particular linguistic break at the Prut River, which divides Moldova from Romania. Moldavian variety is considered one of the five major spoken varieties of Romanian, all five being written identically, but only about half of the speakers of this variety live in Moldova, while the other half live in the neighboring regions of Romania.
In formal use, the languages are identical except for one minor orthographical issue (the Moldovans often, but not always, write ''î'' in some contexts where Romanians would use ''â''; this same form used to be normal in Romania until 1990s).
The standard alphabet of the language is the Latin alphabet (currently official in the Republic of Moldova). Between 1940 and 1989, Soviet authorities have imposed the usage of the Cyrillic alphabet. The latter remains currently in use only in breakaway region of Transnistria.
Moldavian was assigned code mo in ISO 639-1 and code mol in ISO 639-2 and ISO/DIS 639-3.^[5]

Contents

History and politics

Controversy

Orthography

Notes

References

External links

History and politics

The history of the Moldovan (Romanian) language in Moldova is closely tied to the region's political status, with long periods of occupation by Russia and the Soviet Union influencing the language's name and (when Cyrillic script was in use) orthography. Major recent developments include the return to a Latin script from Cyrillic in 1989 and several changes in the statutory name of the language used in Moldova, from Moldavian to Romanian and by some individuals back.

Controversy

The matter of whether or not Moldovan is a separate language is a contested political issue within and beyond the Republic of Moldova.
The 1989 law on language of the Moldavian SSR, which is still effective in Moldova according to the Constitution,^[6] asserts the real existence of "linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity".^[7] Title I, Article 13 of the Moldovan Constitution, names it "the national language of the country" (the original Moldovan/Romanian uses the term ''limba de stat'', which literally means ''the language of the state'', or ''official language'', thus avoiding the term ''national'', whose sense is that of ethnicity). In the breakaway region of Transnistria, it is co-official with Ukrainian and Russian.
Despite the official nomenclature, standard Moldovan is widely considered to be identical to standard Romanian^[8]. Writing about "essential differences", Vasile Stati, supporter of Moldovenism, is obliged to concentrate almost exclusively on lexical rather than grammatical differences. Whatever language distinctions may once have existed, these have been decreasing rather than increasing: "... in the main, Moldovan in its standard form was more Romanian by the 1980s than at any point in its history".^[9]
In 2002, the Moldovan Minister of Justice, Ion Morei, said that Romanian and Moldovan are the same language and that the Constitution of Moldova should be amended, not necessarily by changing the word ''Moldovan'' into ''Romanian'', but by adding that "Romanian and Moldovan are the same language".^[10] Education Minister Valentin Beniuc said, "I have stated more than once that the notion of a Moldovan language and a Romanian language reflects the same linguistic phenomenon in essence."^[11] The President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, acknowledged that the two languages are identical, but said that Moldovans should have the right to call their language "Moldovan".^[12]
The official language of Moldova is regulated by the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, which calls it ''Romanian''. The name Romanian is also used in all schools and universities in Moldova.
In the 2004 census, out of the 3,383,332 people living in Moldova, 16.5% (558,508) chose Romanian as their mother tongue, whereas 60% chose Moldovan. While 40% of all urban Romanian/Moldovan speakers chose Romanian as their mother tongue, in the countryside barely one in seven Romanian/Moldovan speakers indicated Romanian as his mother tongue.^[13]
There are, however, few regional differences between the colloquial spoken languages of Moldova and Romania, as might be found within any linguistic territory, and the common speech of areas such as Chişinău or Transnistria can be distinguished from the speech of Iaşi, a Romanian city that is also part of the former Principality of Moldavia, while the difference in the common speech between Iaşi and the capital of Romania Bucharest is even greater. In general, before 1988-89, the less educated, the greater the difference from standard Romanian, and the more words were borrowed ad hoc from Russian into the daily speech.
The 1917 poem ''Limba noastră'' ("Our language") by Alexei Mateevici has been the national anthem of Moldova since 1994.
It does not, however, make any claims relating to whether it is 'Romanian' or 'Moldovan' which is "our language."

Orthography

Main articles: Romanian alphabet, Moldovan alphabet

Between 1940 and 1989, i.e. during the Soviet rule, Cyrillic replaced Latin as the official alphabet in Moldova (then Moldavian SSR). In 1989, Latin replaced Cyrillic in turn, adopting entirely the contemporary orthographic rules of Romanian. However, a short time after that, the Romanian Academy reformed the orthography in order to bring it closer to the standard of the pre-communist era: e.g., the Romanian phoneme previously exclusively transcribed as î (except the derivatives of "român") was to be written â or î, depending on its location in the word; also, the third person plural form of the verb "to be" was to be spelled "sunt" instead of "sînt". The â/î reform had no impact upon the pronunciation (unlike the "sunt/sînt" change).
The regulating institution in Moldova, the Institute of Linguistics at the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, has made no similar recommendations.
The result of this reform is some ambiguity in the orthographic practices of both countries. While in Romania, some popular publications (such as ''Academia Caţavencu'', ''Cotidianul'', ''Ziarul de Iasi'') refused to apply the new rules based on linguistic arguments, in the Republic of Moldova the issue is seen as mirroring a political attitude. In fact, almost all Moldovan newspapers in Romanian opposing the national ideology of the ruling communist party consistently follow the official orthography used in Romania (e.g., ''Timpul'', ''Jurnal de Chişinău'', ''Ziarul de Gardă'', ''Flux'', etc.), while the papers voicing pro-governmental positions (e.g., ''Moldova Suverană'' and rarely ''Comunistul'') use a mixed orthography from article to article.
In the countryside, some elderly people might prefer writing in Cyrillic script, while knowing the Latin script nonetheless.^[14]

Notes

1. Kogan Page 2004, p 242
2. "Concepţia politicii naţionale a Republicii Moldova" at the Moldovan Parliament website:
:"''The conception has its starting point in the historical truth, confirmed by the common literary treasure: the Moldovan people and the Romanian people use a common literary form'' [Editor's note — of the language] ''(...). Having common origin, disposing of a common basic word hoard, the national Moldovan language and the national Romanian language each maintains its own language name as an identifier of the nation: Moldovan and Romanian.''"
:("Concepţia porneşte de la adevărul statornicit istoriceşte şi confirmat de tezaurul literar comun: poporul moldovenesc şi poporul român folosesc o formă literară comună [...]. Avînd originea comună, dispunînd de un fond lexical de bază comun, limba naţională moldovenească şi limba naţională română îşi păstrează fiecare lingvonimul/glotonimul său ca însemn identificator al fiecărei naţiuni: moldovenească şi română.")
3. From 1989 until 1994 there was a tendency in the official circles to use more the term "Romanian", until the point that from 1992 the term "Moldovan" was no longer in official use. After 1994, "Moldovan" made a come back and was used in some instances. These grew after 2001, but fell back to the pre-2001 levels two years later. Very often officials prefer to use "official language" or "state language" to avoid making a public choice.
4. Declaraţia de independenţa a Republicii Moldova, Moldova Suverană
5. SIL International: ISO 639 code sets: Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: mol
6. Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, Title 7, Article 7: ''"The law of 1 September 1989 regarding the usage of languages spoken on the territory of the Republic of Moldova remains valid, excepting the points where it contradicts this constitution."''
7. (Law regarding the usage of languages spoken on the territory of the Republic of Moldova): ''"Moldavian SSR supports the desire of the Moldovans that live across the borders of the Republic, and considering the really existing linguistical Moldo-Romanian identity - of the Romanians that live on the territory of the USSR, of doing their studies and satisfying their cultural needs in their maternal language."''
8. Kogan Page 2004, p 291 ; IHT, 16 June 2000, p. 2 ; Dyer 1999 , 2005
9. King 2000
10. Ion Morei: The Moldovan language is identical to the Romanian language, ''Moldova Azi'', 10 September 2002
11. Din nou fără burse, ''Jurnal de Chişinău'', 25 May 2004
12. Mediafax interview
13. National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova: Census 2004
14. Language in Moldova - observations in streets and houses in the Republic of Moldova by Diana Nissler

References

★ Dyer, D. (1999). ''The Romanian Dialect of Moldova: A Study in Language and Politics''. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. (ISBN 0-7734-8037-4)

★ Dyer, Donald Leroy, ed. ''Studies in Moldovan''. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs), 1996. (ISBN 0-88033-351-0)

★ Stati, V.N. ''Dicţionar moldovenesc-românesc''. [=''Moldovan-Romanian dictionary''.] Chişinău: Tipografia Centrală (Biblioteca Pro Moldova), 2003. (ISBN 9975-78-248-5)

★ Dumbrava, V. (2004). ''Sprachkonflikt und Sprachbewusstsein in der Republik Moldova: Eine empirische Studie in gemischtethnischen Familien (Sprache, Mehrsprachigkeit und sozialer Wandel)''. Bern: Peter Lang. (ISBN 3-631-50728-3)

★ Movileanu N. Din istoria Transnistriei (1924-1940), ''Revista de istorie a Moldovei'', 1993, #2.

★ Negru E. Introducerea si interzicerea grafiei latine in R.A.S.S.M, 1999, ''Revista de istorie a Moldovei'', #3-4.

★ (2004). ''Europe Review 2003/2004''. Kogan Page.

★ King, C. ''The Moldovans: Romania, Russia and the Politics of Culture'', Hoover Institution Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8179-9792-X.

External links

★ Ethnologue report for Moldova

★ Academy of Sciences of Moldova

★ Conference presentation by Tamara Cărăuş, about identity issues in Moldova

★ Essay on Language in Moldavia by Diana Nissler

★ Article by Attila Demkó