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{{History of Moldova}}


{{Rshell|
The '''history of the Moldovan language''' refers to the history of the ] in the historical and political regions of ].
{{R to section}}

}}
==Before 1812==
The Moldovan prince ] (ca. 1365-1373), son of the very first ruler of Moldova, was recognized as duke of Moldova by the ], and the recognition letters called him duke of Moldavia or ] nation: ''dux Moldavie partium seu nationis Wlachie''.

The Polish chronicler, ], remarked as early as 1476 that Moldavians and ]ns "share a language and customs"<ref>The Annals of Jan Długosz'' ISBN 1-901019-00-4, p. 593</ref>. References to a Moldavian language can be found in works as early as ]'s ''The Chronicles of the land of Moldavia'' (1640s), who considers that the language is an amalgam of numerous languages (], ], ], ], ], ] etc.) and is mixed with the neighbouring languages. The author however assumes the preponderance of Latin influence, and claims that, at a closer look, all Latin words could be understood by Moldavians.

], in his ''De neamul moldovenilor'' (1687) writes that ], ], and Romanians from the ] have the same origin, and says that although people of Moldavia call themselves "Moldavians", they name their language "Romanian" (''româneşte'') instead of Moldavian (''moldoveneşte''). Also Miron Costin, in his ] ''Chronicle of Wallachia and Moldavia'' assumes that both Muntenians and Moldavians once called themselves "Romans".

The Moldavian scholar ] wrote in his '']'' (] ]) that the Wallachians and Transylvanians spoke basically the same language as Moldavians, but pronounced the words in a harsher way.<ref>''From ]'': "Valachiae et Transylvaniae incolis eadem est cum Moldavis lingua, pronunciatio tamen rudior, ut dziur, Vlachus proferet zur, jur, per z polonicum sive j gallicum; Dumnedzeu, Deus, val. Dumnezeu: akmu, nunc, val. akuma, aczela hic, val: ahela."</ref> Cantemir also wrote one of the earliest histories of the Moldovan language, noting the evolution of Moldovan words from Latin, noticing the ] borrowings and introducing the idea that some Moldovan words had ] roots.

==First written documents==
The first written works in Moldavian language (using the Cyrillic alphabet) date back to the 16th century <ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Moldavians|title=Moldavian|work=]}}</ref>.

==Origins==
According to ] , there are different hypothesis of appearance of the Moldavian language. The majority considers it a vulgar Latin without any other linguistic influence. There are also opinions, according to which, Moldavian derives from Italian. For those who consider Latin to be the origin of Moldavian language, rely on the fact that ] settlers arrived to ] long before the language spoken in Rome was vulgarised following invasions of ] and ]. There is no historical evidence that these Roman settlers returned to ] during the ] rule. Therefore, inhabitants of ] could not see their language influenced by a language which did not exist yet. Secondly, Moldavians never called themselves "Italians", which term became highly popular later in ], instead of the term "Romans". It is possible that neighboring peoples adopted this name from Moldavians, as Modlavians were a more known to them nation, contrary to the hypothesis of transmission from Italians to Moldavians. Thirdly, until today, Moldavian language kept many Latin words, which do not exost in Italian. And, consequently, nouns and verbs, appeared in ] from ], ] and ], are not present in the Moldavian language.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! '''Latin'''
! '''Italian'''
! '''Moldavian (Old Cyrillic/Modern Latin alphabet)'''
! '''English'''
|-
| incipio
| communico
| ынчеп/incep
| I start
|-
| albus
| bianco
| алб/alb
| white
|-
| civilas
| citta
| четате/cetate
| castle
|-
| dominus
| signore
| домн/domn
| Mister
|-
| mensa
| tavola
| масэ/masa
| table
|-
| verbum
| parola
| ворбэ/vorba
| white
|-
| caput
| testa
| кап/cap
| head
|-
| venatio
| caccia
| вынат/vinat
| hunting
|}

However, the defenders of Italian origin of Moldavian language sustain that Moldavian has ]s: ''ам/am, ай/ai, аре/are'', nominative articles and has such typical Italian words as ''шкьоп/szkiop'' (later spellin in Moldavian "şchiop") - {{lang-it|sciopo}} ("lame" in English), черк/czerc (later spelling in Moldavian "cerc")- {{lang-it|cerco}}, which are inexistent in Latin and may only come from Italian

The opponents admit that Moldavians use auxiliary verbs and nominative articles, but according to them, they are not Italian, but proper Moldavian, and especially nominative articles render Modlavian different from Italian. In Italian, the article preceeds the noun, whereas in Moldavian it follows the noun and is attached to it. For example {{lang-it|l'huomo, la moglie}} are омул/omul, муеря/muiere in Moldavian. Italian has only on earticle for male singular ''il'', plural ''gli'' or ''i'', female singular ''la'', plural ''le''. Moldavian, to the contrary, has two article forms for male singular ул/ul and ле/le. One of them is attached to the nouns ending with a ], another to the nouns ending with a ], as for example: омул/omul — man, калул/calul — horse, скаунул/scaunul — chair, васул/vasul — vessel, шерпеле/şerpele — snake, кынеле/cinele — dog. In plural, nouns receive an article ий/ii, for example: каий/caii - horses, оамений/oamenii - people; for the male nouns designating lifeless objects, an article еле/ele is added, for example: скаунеле/scaunele, васеле/vasele. Female has also two kinds of articles in Moldavian: ''e/e'' and ''a/a'', for example: муере/muiere - woman, гаина/gaina — chicken; female nouns ending with ''e'' in plural receive an ending ''иле/ile'', as for example: муере/muiere — муериле/muierile, those ending with an ''a'', in plural receive ''еле/ele'', as for example: гаина/gaina — гаинеле/gainele.

It is also plausible to think that those words that were more similar to Italian than to the language spoken in Ancient Rome, arrived into Moldavian language thanks by means of long trade relations of ] with ] in the time when the latter owned the seashore of the ]. In the same manner, through trade relations with ], ], ], many new words arrived into Moldavian lnaguage. For example, Greeks marked Moldavian with:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! '''Moldavian'''
! ''']'''
! ]
|-
| педяпсэ/pedeapsa
| παιδευσις
| punishment
|-
| кивернисире
| κυβερνησις
| row 2, cell 3
|-
| прокопие/procopie
| προκοπη
| row 2, cell 3
|-
| блэстэм/blastem
| βλασφημω
| row 2, cell 3
|-
| азимэ (азымэ)/azima
| αζυμον
| row 2, cell 3
|-
| друм/drum
| δρομος
| row 2, cell 3
|-
| пизмэ/pizma
| πειοηα
| row 2, cell 3
|}

==Status of the Moldovan language during the Russian Empire==
Following ] (after 1812), Moldavian was established as an official language in the institutions of ], used along with ], as 95% of the population was Romanian.

Gradually, the Russian language gained importance. According to the dates provided by the administration of Bessarabia, since ], official documents were published in Russian only, and around 1835 a 7 year term was established during which state institutions would accept acts in the Romanian language.<ref name="heitmann">Heitmann, K., 1989, ''Moldauisch.'' In Holtus, G., Metzeltin, M. and Schmitt, C. (eds), ''Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik'', Tübingen, vol 3. 508-21.</ref>

Romanian was accepted as the language of instruction until ], afterwards being taught as a separate subject. Thus, at the ] of ], the Romanian language was a compulsory subject, with 10 hours weekly, until ], when the Department of Romanian was closed. At the High School No.1 in ], students had the right to choose among Romanian, ], and ] until ] ], when the State Counselor of the Russian Empire forbade teaching of the Romanian language, with the following justification: "the pupils know this language in the practical mode, and its teaching follows other goals".<ref name="heitmann" />

Around ], the tsar published an '']'' "On the suspension of teaching the Romanian language in the schools of Bessarabia," because "local speech is not taught in the Russian Empire".<ref name="heitmann" />

The linguistic situation in Bessarabia from ] to ] was the gradual development of ]. ] continued to develop as the official language of privilege, whereas ] remained the principal vernacular. The evolution of this linguistic situation, and the development of ''Moldovan'', can be divided into five phases. <ref name="lidia">Colesnic-Codreanca, Lidia. ''Limba Română în Basarabia. Studiu sociolingvistic pe baza materialelor de arhivă (1812–1918)'' ("The Romanian language in Bessarabia. A sociolinguistic study based on archival materials (1812-1918)"). Chişinău: Editorial Museum, 2003.</ref>

===Phase one: 1812 to 1828===
The period from 1812 to ] was one of neutral or functional bilingualism. Whereas Russian had official dominance, Romanian was not without influence, especially in the spheres of public administration, education (particularly religious education) and culture. In the years immediately following the annexation, loyalty to Romanian language and customs became important. The Theological Seminary (''Seminarul Teologic'') and Lancaster Schools were opened in 1813 and 1824 respectively, Romanian grammar books were published, and the printing press at Chişinău began producing religious books. <ref name="lidia" />

===Phase two: 1828 to 1843===
The period from 1828 to ] was one of partial '']'' bilingualism. During this time, use of Romanian was forbidden in the sphere of administration. This was carried out through negative means: Romanian was excluded from the ]. Romanian continued to be used in education, but only as a separate subject. Bilingual manuals, such as the Russian-Romanian ''Bucoavne'' grammar of Iacob Ghinculov, were published to meet the new need for bilingualism. Religious books and Sunday ]s remained the only monolingual public outlet for Romanian. By 1843, the removal of Romanian from public administration was complete. <ref name="lidia" />

According to the Organic Statute of 1828, the Moldovan language was also the official language of Ottoman-dominated Moldavia.

===Phase three: 1843 to 1871===
The period from ] to ] was one of assimilation. Romanian continued to be a school subject at the Liceul Regional (]) until ], at the Theological Seminary until ], and at regional schools until 1871, when all teaching of the language was forbidden by law. <ref name="lidia" />

===Phase four: 1871 to 1905===
The period from 1871 to ] was one of official ] in Russian. All public use of Romanian was phased out, and substituted with Russian. Romanian continued to be used as the colloquial language of home and family. This was the era of the highest level of assimilation in the ]. In ], the priest Pavel Lebedev ordered that all church documents be written in Russian, and, in ], the press at Chişinău was closed by order of the ]. <ref name="lidia" />

===Phase five: 1905 to 1917===
The period from 1905 to ] was one of increasing linguistic conflict, with the re-awakening of Romanian national consciousness. In 1905 and 1906, the Bessarabian '']'' asked for the re-introduction of Romanian in schools as a "compulsory language", and the "liberty to teach in the mother language (Romanian language)". At the same time, the first Romanian language newspapers and journals began to appear: ''Basarabia'' (1906), ''Viaţa Basarabiei'' (1907), ''Moldovanul'' (1907), ''Luminătorul'' (1908), ''Cuvînt moldovenesc'' (1913), ''Glasul Basarabiei'' (1913). From 1913, the synod permitted that "the churches in Besserabia use the Romanian language". <ref name="lidia" />

The term "Moldovan language" (''limbă moldovenească'') was newly employed to create a state-sponsored '']'' to distinguish it from 'Romanian' Romanian. Thus, Şt. Margeală, in 1827, stated that the aim of his book was to "offer the 800,000 Romanians who live in Bessarabia,... as well as to the millions of Romanians from the other part of Prut, the possibility of knowing the Russian language, and also for the Russians who want to study the Romanian language". In 1865 Ioan Doncev, editing his Romanian primer and grammar, affirmed that Moldovan is ''valaho-româno'', or Romanian. However, after this date, the label "Romanian language" appears only sporadically in the correspondence of the educational authorities. Gradually, ''Moldovan'' became the sole label for the language: a situation that proved useful to those who wished for a cultural separation of Bessarabia from Romania. Although referring to another historical period, Kl. Heitmann stated that the "theory of two languages — Romanian and Moldovan — was served both in Moscow as well as in Chişinău to combat the nationalistic veleities of the Republic of Moldova, being, in fact, an action against Romanian nationalism". (Heitmann, 1965). The objective of the Russian language policies in Bessarabia was the ''dialectization'' of the Romanian language. A. Arţimovici, official of the Education Department based in ], wrote a letter, dated ] ], to the Minister of Public Instructions stating: "I have the opinion that it will be hard to stop the Romanian population of Bessarabia using the language of the neighbouring principalities, where the concentrated Romanian population may develop the language based on its Latin elements, not good for Slavic language. The government's directions pertaining to this case aim to make a new dialect in Bessarabia, more closely based on Slavic language, will be, as it will be seen, of no use: we cannot direct the teachers to teach a language that will soon be dead in Moldova and Wallachia... parents will not want their children to learn a different language to the one they currently speak". Although some clerks, like Arţimovici, realised that the creation of a dialect apart from the Romanian spoken in the United Principalities could never be truly effective, most of them "with the aim of fulfilling governmental policy, tendentiously called the majority language ''Moldovan'', even in the context where ''Romanian'' had always been used previously". <ref name="lidia" />

==Moldovan language in the Soviet Union==
===Autochtonization===
]
The territory of Bessarabia which forms most of the present-day Republic of Moldova, historically the eastern part of the principality of Moldavia, was annexed from the ] by ] in ] and remained a Russian territory until the ] of ]. In ], Bessarabia was united with ].

With the creation in ] of the ] within the ], the ] authorities declared the variety spoken by the majority of Moldavians to be "Moldavian language", for the purpose of giving the region its own identity separate from Romania.<ref>Grenoble 2003, pp 89-93</ref><ref>Ana Coreţchi, Ana Pascaru, Cynthia Stevens, '''', ].</ref><ref>Elizabeth Blackwell, '''', College of Political Science, ]</ref><ref>'''' (''Language'' section), ].</ref>

The intellectual elites of MASSR were asked to create a Moldovan literary language, distinct from Romanian. The local language, although distinct from standard Romanian, was less different from it than some dialects within Romania. Pavel Chior, the MASSR ] of Education argued that standard literary Romanian borrowed too many French-language words, making it incomprehensible to the peasants both in MASSR and in Romania and that these differences should be used to empasize the differences between the "ruling class" and of the "exploited class".<ref>King, p.64</ref>

Soviet linguist ] studied the language in the MASSR and he mapped two dialects, of which one was similar to the language of Bessarabia, being chosen as the standard, to pave the way for the "liberation of the Bessarabians". ], a Socialist Revolutionary member of ] who opposed the union with Romania, wrote in 1925 a grammar, but it was considered too similar to Romanian grammars and it was quickly pulled out of the circulation.<ref>King, p.64</ref>

As a result of the transfers of the territory and the population movements, including ] and encouraged immigration from the rest of the USSR, by the mid-20th century, the number of Russian speakers increased. Also, during Soviet rule, Moldovan speakers were encouraged to learn the Russian language as a prerequisite for access to higher education, social status and political power. All this contributed to proliferation of Russian loanwords in spoken Moldovan.

=== Romanizators and autochtonists ===
In the 1920s there was a dispute between supporters ("Romanizators" or "Romanists") and opponents ("autochtonists", Russian: самобытники) of the convergence of the Moldavian and Romanian languages.

In particular, the "autochtonists" strove to base the literary Moldovan language on local dialects from the left bank of the ]. ]s were created to cover technical areas that had no native Moldovan equivalent.

In February 1932, Moldovan communists received a directive from the Communist Party of Ukraine to switch Moldovan writing to the ]. This was part of the massive Latinization campaign of minority languages in the ], based on the theory of Soviet linguist ] postulating the convergence to a single world language, expected to be a means of communication in the future classless society (]). This directive was passively sabotaged by the "autochtonist" majority, until ] (] of the Ukrainian Communist Party) and several Moldovan communists visited ] &mdash; who reportedly insisted on faster Latinization with the ultimate goal of the convergence of Moldavian and Romanian cultures, hinting at the possibility of a future reunion of Moldova and Romania. Nevertheless, resistance to Romanization persisted, and after 1933, a number of prominent "autochtonists" were repressed, their books destroyed, and their neologisms banned.

After the infamous February-March (1937) ] ] ], which escalated the ], both "romanizators" and "autochtonists" were declared "imperialist spies": "autochtonists", because they sabotaged the Latinization, and "romanizators", because they were "agents of ] Romania" ("Боярская Румыния", i.e. anti-Soviet).

In February ], Moldovan communists issued a declaration transferring Moldovan writing to the Cyrillic alphabet once again, which in August 1939 was made into the law of the ] and after 1940, the ]. The motivation was that the Latinization was used by "]-nationalist elements" to "distance the Moldavian populace from the Ukrainian and Russian ones, with the ultimate goal of the separation of Soviet Moldavia from the USSR".

===Moldovan in Soviet Moldova ===
In June ] Bessarabia came under ] rule. A year later, in ], Romania invaded the Soviet Union as part of ] and retook Bessarabia, along with the territory between the ] and ] rivers. These territories were taken back by the Soviet Union 3 years later in ], and remained under Soviet administration until the ] in ].

In 1956, during the ] of the victims of Stalinist repression, a special report was issued about the state of the Moldavian language, which stated, in part, that the discussions of 1920-30s between the two tendencies were mostly non-scientific, since there were very few linguists in the republic, and that the grammar and the basic lexicon of literary Romanian and Moldovan languages are identical, while differences are secondary and nonessential.{{cn}} Once again, the planned convergence of the Romanian and Moldovan languages was approved, bearing in mind the political situation in the ].

Some Soviet linguists denied the existence of a Moldovan language.<ref>: Acum o jumatate de secol, doi renumiti profesori ai Universitatii din Moscova, romanistul R.A. Budagov si slavistul S.B. Bernstein, au trimis revistei Voprosi jazakoznanija (Probleme de lingvistica) articolul cu privire la unitatea de limba romano-moldoveneasca, articol ce a fost publicat abia in 1988, in revista Nistru. Cei doi savanti aratau in mod clar ca s-au irosit multe forte si mult timp pentru a demonstra teza eronata cum ca moldovenii si romanii vorbesc limbi romanice inrudite, dar diferite. Dovezi in favoarea acestei teze n-au existat si nu pot exista", se arata in comunicat.</ref>

In the 1970s, a new generation of Soviet linguists debated about Moldovan being a different language. For example, one linguist, Iliasenco, compared the Romanian and Moldovan translations of a Brezhnev speech from Russian and used them as a proof for the existence of two different languages. Linguist Michael Bruchis analysed this claim, and noticed that all the words of both translations are found in both dictionaries. Also, Iliasenco implied "Moldovan" preferred synthetic while "Romanian" preferred analytic ]s. However, this claim was also proven wrong, as a book of ] (the political leader of Romania at the time) uses mostly "Moldovan" synthetic syntagms, while a book by ] (the secretary of the ]) uses mostly "Romanian" analytic syntagms. Bruchis' conclusion was that both translations were within the limits of Romanian language.<ref>Michael Bruchis. ''The Language Policy of the CPSU and the Linguistic Situation in Soviet Moldavia'', in '']'', Vol. 36, No. 1. (Jan., 1984), pp. 118-119.</ref>

== Reversion to Latin script, and beyond ==
In ], the contemporary Romanian version of the Latin alphabet was made the ] of the Moldavian SSR.

In the Declaration of Independence<ref> (Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova) {{ro icon}}</ref> of ] (] ]), the official language was named "Romanian", but the 1994 constitution declared Moldovan the state language.

When in ] the Romanian Academy changed the official orthography of Romania, the Institute of Linguistics at the ] did not make the same changes, and the official orthography continued as before (for more detail, see below).

A ] attempt by Moldovan president ] to change the official language to "Romanian" was dismissed by the Moldovan Parliament as promoting "Romanian expansionism".

In ], a ] (''Dicţionar Moldovenesc-Românesc'' (2003), by ]) was published. The linguists of the ] in Romania declared that all the Moldovan words are also Romanian words, although some of its contents are disputed as being Russian ]s. In Moldova, the head of the ]' Institute of Linguistics, ], described the dictionary as "an absurdity, serving political purposes". Stati, however, accused both of promoting "Romanian colonialism".

In the ], 16.5% (558,508) out of the 3,383,332 people living in Moldova declared Romanian as their mother tongue, whereas 60% declared Moldovan. While 40% of all ] Romanian/Moldovan speakers declared Romanian as their mother tongue, in the country side hardly each 7th Romanian/Moldovan speaker indicated Romanian as his mother tongue.<ref>National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova: </ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Grenoble, Lenore A (2003) ''Language Policy in the Soviet Union'', ], ISBN 1-4020-1298-5
* ]. '']'' (1642-1647)
* ]. '']'' (1687)
* ]. '']'' (1714)
* M. Bărbulescu, D. Deletant, K. Hitchins, S. Papacostea, P. Teodor - ''Istoria României''. Ed. Corint, 2004, ISBN 973-653-514-2

==Further reading==
*Matthew H. Ciscel (2007) The Language of the Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and Identity in an Ex-Soviet Republic", ISBN 0739114433 - About the identity of the contemporary Moldovans in the context of debates about the their language.

==External links==
* by Eleonora Rusnac, President, Association of Professional Translators of Moldova.

{{Language histories}}
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