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Moldovan (also Moldavian) is the official name for the Romanian language in the Republic of Moldova and in its breakaway territory of Transnistria. The Constitution of Moldova (Title I, Article 13) states that the "Moldovan language" is the official language of the country. In Moldova's Declaration of Independence the state language was called Romanian. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has, however, emphasized the separate identity of the Moldovan language, accusing Romania of failing to do the same. A group of Romanian linguists adopted a resolution stating that promotion of the notion of Moldovan language is an unscientific campaign.

"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 less than half of the speakers of this variety live in Moldova, while more than half live in the neighboring regions of Romania.

The standard alphabet of the language is the Latin alphabet (currently official in the Republic of Moldova). During the Soviet era, between 1940 and 1989, the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet (different from old Romanian Cyrillic alphabet) was used. As of 2007, it remains 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.

History and politics

The history of the Moldovan language in Moldova is closely tied to the region's political status, with long periods of rule by Russia and the Soviet Union influencing the language's name and (when Cyrillic script was in use) orthography. Major recent developments include the passing to a Latin script from Cyrillic in 1989 and several changes in the statutory name of the language used in Moldova. At one point of particular confusion about identity in the 1990s, all references to geography in the name of the language was dropped, and it was officially known simply as limba de stat - "The State Language".

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, asserts the existence of "linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity". 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. 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".

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". 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." 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".

The official language of Moldova is regulated by the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, which calls it Romanian.

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.

There are, however, few regional differences between the colloquial spoken languages of Moldova and Romania, 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. However, others have argued that these differences might be found within any linguistic territory.

Moldovan language and the EU

When reporting on the proposal for a decision of the EU Council concerning the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Community and Republic of Moldova the rapporteur objected to the use of the term "Moldovan language". This has led to speculation in the Romanian press to the conclusion that supposedly the EU (or Leonard Orban, European Commissioner for Multilingualism) banned the usage of the term "Moldovan language (e.g.,) In his November 17, 2007 interview, Leonard Orban denied these allegations, stating: "It is not the European Commission who acknowledges one language or the other. I want to be very clear about it: it is a decision that belongs to every national state. When views are different, of course they have to be settled politically, not at the European Commission level, but by the states that have different views."

Orthography

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 language.

Notes

1. Kogan Page 2004, p 242
2. http://ec.europa.eu/translation/language_aids/recognition/field_guide_main_languages_of_europe_en.pdf A Field Guide to the Main Languages of Europe - Spot that language and how to tell them apart], on the website of the European Commission
3. Template:Ro iconDeclaraţia de independenţa a Republicii Moldova, Moldova Suverană
4. "Moldovans suspicious of Romania's intentions". The Financial Times. 2007-12-08. Retrieved 2007-12-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. Template:Ro icon"Ziare.ro - Linguists condemn "Moldovan language"". Retrieved 2007-11-10.
6. SIL International: ISO 639 code sets: Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: mol
7. 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."
8. Legea cu privire la funcţionarea limbilor vorbite pe teritoriul RSS Moldoveneşti Nr.3465-XI din 01.09.89 Vestile nr.9/217, 1989 (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."
9. Kogan Page 2004, p 291 ; IHT, 16 June 2000, p. 2 ; Dyer 1999, 2005
10. King 2000
11. Ion Morei: The Moldovan language is identical to the Romanian language, Moldova Azi, 10 September 2002
12. Din nou fără burse, Jurnal de Chişinău, 25 May 2004
13. Mediafax interview
14. National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova: Census 2004
16. "Orban a eliminat “limba moldovenească” de pe site-ul Comisiei Europene" Template:Ro icon

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. 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 Template:Ro icon

Template:Link FA

• Languages of Moldova
• Romanian language
• Languages of Transnistria