Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 22:26, 17 December 2005

The Moldovan language (Romanian) (limba moldovenească, sometimes translated into English as Moldavian) is spoken in the Republic of Moldova.

Standard Moldovan is identical to Romanian, an Eastern Romance language. There are, however, few differences in the spoken languages of Moldova and Romania. The matter of whether or not Moldovan is a separate language is a hotly-contested political issue in the Republic of Moldova.

"Moldovan" (graiul moldovenesc, in older sources limba moldoveneasca) can also refer to the speech of the historical region of Moldavia in Romania.

An official standard Moldovan language as such does not exist: there are however variants of the Romanian language spoken in Moldova; and these are, mainly for political reasons, sometimes referred to as "Moldovan".

There is no unitary Moldovan language, but a variety of Romanian is spoken.

"Moldovan language" is in fact indentical with Romanian language, renamed as a "language" for political reasons by the government. Although similar theories have been fielded for other languages, this proposal is now believed to have been made to serve political purposes only, and nobody has provided any evidence so-far towards the idea that Moldovan and Romanian are not from common linguistic stock.

The term "Moldovan" is also a soviet invention (see Dept. of State & CIA). A separate language based on these was declared and promoted for political reasons, in order to further advance a Moldovan identity separate from that of Romania.

Russians manipulated people of Republic of Moldova and washed their brains to create a new person, the soviet "Moldovan". The real name in English is Moldavian, in Romanian is Moldovean and in Russian is Molidavanin.

The soviet Russians called people of Moldavia Republic: "Moldovan" because they wanted to create a new nation different from Moldavians/Romanians.

"The name 'Moldovan language' (in Russian, МОЛДaВCKИЙ ЯЗБIK 'moldavskii iazyk'); in Romanian, limbă moldovenească, or, in Cyrillic characters, ЛИMбЗ MOЛДОBeНЯCKЗ was applied in the Soviet Union, as during earlier periods of Russian occupation of the area in question, to the * Romance language used in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (corresponding more or less to the formerly Romanian territory of Bessarabia, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940). In reality, 'Moldavian' is nothing else than the *Romanian language as spoken in Moldavia, i.e. both east of the river Prut in Bessarabia (now the Republic of Moldova) and west of the Prut in that part of the former province that remains as part of Romania. Claims made in the post-Second World War period by the Soviet linguists that 'Moldavian' should be recognized as a distinct Romance language were not taken into seriously by western scholars.

Under Soviet domination, the *Cyrillic alphabet was in the use in the Moldavian SSR until the passing of a law on 31 August 1989 (i.e. before the break-up of the Soviet Union) proclaiming Moldavian as the official language of the Republic and the use of Latin script. Apart from a few lexical differences (mainly technical terms borrowed from Russian rather than, as in standard Romanian, from western languages), the written language was thenceforth indistinguishable from that in use in Romania and moves are afoot to harmonize the technical terminology of Moldova with that adopted in Romanian specialized dictionaries.

The number of Moldovan speakers depends on one's view of the status of Moldovan. If taken as a separate language, then 1.2 million people speak Moldovan. If Moldovan is taken to mean Romanian spoken in Romania and Moldova and by the Romanian/Moldovan diaspora, then there may be as many as 28 million speakers.

History and politics

Before 1812

References to a "Moldavian language" can be found in works as early as Grigore Ureche's "Chronicles of the Moldovan Nation", where it is noted that in actuality one language prevailed over the territory of Moldavia, Wallachia as well as Transylvania.

The Moldavian scientist Dimitrie Cantemir presented a theory in Descriptio Moldaviae (Berlin 1714): that the Moldavians speak the same language as Wallachians and Transylvanians. Cantemir also introduced the idea and proofs that Moldavian (Romanian) have Dacian origin.

Russification of the language in imperial Russian Bessarabia

In the first years of Russian occupation (after 1812), because 95% of the population were Romanians who only knew their mother tongue, Romanian was admitted as an official language in the institutions of Bessarabia, used along with Russian.

Gradually the Russian language gained importance. According to the dates offered by the Department for ruling the Bessarabia from 1828, the papers from bureau were published only in Russian, and around 1835 it is established a term of 7 years time in which the state institutions would still accept acts in Romanian language.

Romanian was admitted as language of teaching only until 1842, after that being taught as a separate subject. Thus, at the seminary of Chişinău, the Romanian language was found on the list of compulsory subjects, with 10 hours weekly, until 1863, when the Department of Romanian was closed. At High School No.1 in Chişinău the pupils had the right to choose between Romanian and German or between Romanian and Greek until 9 February 1866, when the State Counselor of the Russian Empire forbade teaching of the Romanian language because the pupils "know this language in the practical mode, and its teaching follows other goals".

Around 1871, the tsar published an ukase "On the suspension of teaching the Romanian language in the schools from Bessarabia," because "in the Russian Empire local speeches are not taught".

Artificial evolution of Romanian to Moldovan

The linguistic situation in Bessarabia from 1812 to 1918 was the gradual development of bilingualism. Russian continued to develope as the official language of priviledge, whereas Romanian remained the principal vernacular. The evolution of this linguistic situation, and the development of Moldovan, can be divided into five phases.

Phase one: 1812 to 1828

The period from 1812 to 1828 was on of neutral or functional bilingualism. Whereas Russian has official dominance, Romanian is not without influence, especially in the spheres of public administration, education (particularly religious education) and culture. In the years that immediately follow the annexation, loyalty to the Romanian language and customs becomes important. The Theological Seminary (Seminarul Teologic) and Lancaster Schools are opened in 1813 and 1824 respectively, Romanian grammar books are published, and the printing press at Chişinău begins to produce religious books.

Phase two: 1828 to 1843

The period from 1828 to 1843 is one of partial diglossic bilingualism. During this time, use of Romanian was forbidden in the sphere of administration. This was carried out by negative means: Romanian was imply excluded from the civil code. 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 publishedto meet the new need for bilingualism. Religious books and Sunday sermons remained the only monolingual public outlet for Romanian. By 1948, the removal of Romanian from public administration was complete.

Phase three: 1843 to 1871

The period from 1843 to 1871 was one of assimilation. Romanian continued to be a taught subject for some time — until 1866 at the Liceul Regional (high school), until 1867 at the Seminarul Teologic (Theological Seminary) and until 1871 at regional schools — until the teaching of the language was forbidden by law.

Phase four: 1871 to 1905

The period from 1871 to 1905 was one of official monolingualism 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 Russian Empire. In 1872, the priest Pavel Lebedev ordered that all church documents be written in Russian, and, in 1882, the press at Chişinău was closed by order of the holy synod.

Phase five: 1905 to 1917

The period from 1905 to 1917 was one of increasing linguistic conflict, with the re-awakening of Romanian national consciousness. In 1905 and 1906, the Bessarabian zemstvels asked for the re-introduction of Romanian in schools as a "compulsory language", and the "liberty to teach in the mother language (Romanian langauge)". 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".

In 1865 Ioan Doncev, editing a primer and a grammar of romanian language, affirms that the moldovan language it is also valaho-româno or romanian. Or, after this date, the collocation romanian language it appears only sporadically only in the correspondance of the educational authorities, in some laws and some verbal processes of the pedagocical Councils.

The Genesis of the collocation "limbă moldovenească" was imposed against the natural one "romanian". It is important that this is reffered to romanian. Thus, Şt. Margeală states that around 1827 that the aim of his book is to "offer the possibility to know the Russian language to the 800,000 Romanians, that are living in Besserabia.....as well as to the millions Romanians from the other part of Prut, also to the Russians that want to study the romanian language".

Step by step, it will be subtitute by "moldovan language", fact that will create favorable conditions of the later ideologies for inventing a "new"! eastern-romanic language. In this sense, the conculsion is clear: "glotonim romanian language was taken out of use for political reasons, fearing the separation of Besserabia from Russian Empire and its union to romanian principalities". Although, this similar afirmation, also referring to other historical period, we find also in Kl. Heitmann: "Theory of two languages - romanian and moldovan - served both at Moscow, as well as in Chişinău for combating the nationalistic veleities from Republic of Moldova, being in fact, an action against romanian nationalism"(Heitmann, 1965).

In 1865 Ioan Doncev, editing a primer and a grammar of romanian language, affirms that the moldovan language it is also valaho-româno or romanian. Or, after this date, the collocation romanian language it appears only sporadically only in the correspondance of the educational authorities, in some laws and some verbal processes of the pedagocical Councils.

It was demonstrated that the objective of the tsarist glotopolitics in Besserabia was dialectization of the romanian language. The tsarist government proposed itself the "inventing" of a dialect neared to the russian language. There is a fragment from the letter of A. Arţimovici, the leader of the education of department of Odessa, from 11 februarie 1863, to Minister of Public Instructions that states: "I have the opinion that it will be hard to stop the romanian population from Besserabia to use the language of the neighbour principalities, where the compact romanian population will develope based on the latin elements, not good for slavic language. The governmental constraints, that follows in this case the aim to make a new dialect in Besserabia neared to slavic language, won't be, as it seen, by no use: we can't constrain the teachers to teach in a language that will soon be dead in Moldova and Wallahia, i.e. for the masses of the main users, and also the parents will not will that their children to learn in a different language of that they speak currently " . Although some clerks, as Arţimovici, figured out that the creation of such different dialect different from romanian language spoken in United Principalities, most of them "in the aim of governmental decisions realization, called in a tendentious way the language of the majority "moldovan", even in the same context, where, has been used the romanian language expression".

In 1949 Moldavian citizens were publicly reprimanded in a journal for daring to express themselves in literary Romanian. The Soviet government continued this type of behavior for decades.

Beginnings of the so called Moldovan language in Soviet Transnistria

In 1918 Bessarabia was united with Romania.

With the creation in 1924 of the Moldavian ASSR within the Ukrainian SSR, the Soviet authorities declared the variety spoken by the majority of Moldavians to be "Moldavian language", allegedly for the purpose of giving the region its own identity separate from Romania. The Latin alphabet which had been used for writing the language for the past 80 years was changed to a version of the Cyrillic alphabet derived from the Russian variant. To justify this, the government noted that up until just 80 years prior, the language was usually written in Cyrillic. (See: Moldovan alphabet)

As a result of the transfers of the territory and the accompanying migration of the population, including deportations of the ethnic Romanians and encouraged migration from the rest of the USSR, by the mid-20th century Bessarabia acquired large communities of Russian speakers, among the Moldovan natives. 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.

At these times there were discussions between the supporters ("Romanizators" or "Romanists") and opponents ("Originalists") of the convergence of Moldavian and Romanian languages.

In particular, Originalists strove to base the literary Moldavian language on local dialects. Neologisms were created to cover technical areas that had no native Moldavian equivalent. As a result, the textbooks, e.g., in botany or physics were barely readable to the uninitiated.

In February [[1932[[ Moldovan communists received a directive from the Communist Party of Ukraine to switch Moldovan writing to the Latin alphabet. This was part of the massive campaign in the USSR of latinization of the alphabets of lesser nationalities, based on the theory of Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr postulating the convergence to a single world language, expected to be a means of communication in the future classless society (communism). This directive was passively sabotaged by the "originalist" majority, until Stanislav Kosior (General Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party) and some Moldovan communists visited Stalin, who reportedly insisted on the faster latinization with the purpose of the convergence of Moldavian and Romanian cultures, hinting at the possibility that in future Moldova and Romania would be reunited. Nevertheless, the resistance to Romanization persisted, and since 1933 a number of prominent "originalists" were repressed, their books destroyed, and their neologisms banned.

After the infamous February-March (1937) VKP(b) Central Committee Plenum, which escalated the Great Purge, both Romanizators and Originalists were declared "imperialist spies": Originalists, because they sabotaged the Latinization, and Romanizators, because they were "agents of boyar Romania" ("Боярская Румыния").

In February 1938 the Moldavian communists issued a declaration concerning the conversion of the Latin-based Moldavian script to the Cyrillic alphabet once again, which in August 1939 was evolved into the law of the republic. The motivation was that the Latinization was used by "bourgeois-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".

Moldavian in Soviet Moldova

In June 1940, the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia. A year later, in 1941, Romania invaded the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa and retook Bessarabia, along with the territory between Dnestr and Bug rivers. These territories were taken back by the Soviet Union 3 years later in 1944, and remained under Soviet administration until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In 1956, during the rehabilitation 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 in the republic there were very few linguists, and that the grammar and the basic lexicon of literary Romanian and Moldovan languages are identical, while differences are secondary and nonessential. Once again, the planned convergence of the Romanian and Moldovan languages was approved, bearing in mind the political situation in the People's Republic of Romania.

Reversion to Latin script, and beyond

In 1989, the contemporary Romanian version of the Latin alphabet was made the official script of the Moldavian SSR.

After the independence of Moldova in 1991, "Romanian" was declared the official language, but the 1994 constitution changed the name of the language to "Moldovan".

A 1996 attempt by Moldovan president Mircea Snegur to change the official language to "Romanian" was dismissed by the Moldovan Parliament as promoting Romanian expansionism.

In 2002, the government of Moldova gave the Russian language the same privileges as Moldovan, since after Soviet rule and the massive Russian and Ukrainian settlement it invited, a significant proportion of the population were mother-tongue speakers of Russian. It was declared to be a mandatory foreign language in schools. This created a wave of indignation among the Moldovan-speaking majority of the population, and rallies against this decision were organized in Chişinău and other major cities. They were largely attended by students and youths. Just as the population of Russian-speakers in the Baltic States has been declining over the past 15 years, so as that of Moldova.

In 2003, a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary (Stati 2003) was published. The linguists of the Romanian Academy in Romania declared that all the Moldovan words are also Romanian words, although some of its contents are disputed as being neologism resulting from Russification. In Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Bărbuţă, described the dictionary as "an absurdity, serving political purposes". Supporters of Stati, however, accused both of promoting "Romanian colonialism".

On the 2004 census, about two thirds of the Romanian-Moldovans, which are the majority population in the Republic of Moldova, declared their mother tongue to be "Romanian", and one third "Moldovan", which is, according to the press, why the release of the official census results was delayed.

Linguistic view

Several linguistic experts, such as Dyer consider that while there are some differences between Moldovan and Romanian, particularly in their spoken forms and colloquial tendencies, these differences are not significant enough to make Moldovan a separate language to Romanian. Particularly, the standard written forms of Moldovan and Romanian are considered to be nearly identical. In fact, controversial Moldovan linguist Vasile Stati, who published a Moldovan-Romanian dictionary in 2003, stated that, "Undoubtedly, the literary form, the most elevated form of the Moldovan language, the cultured form, is identical to the literary form of Romanian."

The Ethnologue classifies the Moldovan language as Romanian and states that the main language of Moldova is Romanian .

The spoken language in most of Moldova is part of the Moldavian variety of Romanian, also spoken in Eastern Romania.

Official view

The constitution of the Republic of Moldova refers to the country's language as Moldovan rather than Romanian, although "Romanian" was the official language between 1991 and 1994. In practice, however, it is often referred to as "Romanian" or "the language of the state".

In schools, the language is called Romanian, and textbooks from Romania are used significantly in the Moldovan education system. The Academy of Sciences of Moldova calls the language Romanian . Additionally, several government departments call the language Romanian, and their websites are offered in Romanian, Russian and often English, but not "Moldovan". These include the Ministry of Education , the Ministry of Justice , the Ministry of Transport and Roads , the Ministry of Internal Affairs , the Office of Statistics and the Department of Migration .

There is a growing international recognition that Moldovan language is in fact Romanian. In particular, in factsheets by US Department of State and in documents of some other countries Romanian is listed as the official language of Moldova.

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". Another government official who stated (in 2004) that Moldovan and Romanian are the same language is Education Minister Valentin Beniuc, who said that, "I have stated more than once that the notion of a Moldovan language and a Romanian language reflects the same linguistic phenomenon in essence.". Additionally, Tatiana Mlecico, continually referred to the language as Romanian during a press conference when she was the chief of the Department of Interethnic Relations..

According to newspaper reports about the most recent Moldovan census, about 45% of all native speakers of Daco-Romanian declared their language to be "Moldovan", while 55% declared it to be "Romanian". There is no official statement from the Moldovan center of statistic yet.

Alphabet and spelling

Cyrillic was replaced by Latin as the official alphabet for the Moldovan language in 1989. Nearly all urban Moldovans can read the Latin alphabet, although many over 30 are more comfortable writing in Cyrillic, as it was compulsorily script of their education. In the countryside, some people over 30 — especially peasants — prefer Cyrillic, but may write in the Latin alphabet, though with difficulty.

The Romanian characters â and î are both written as î in Moldovan. Although â and î sound identical in speech, the Romanian justification for using these two characters is to bring Romanian closer orthographically to other Romance languages, and that etymologically, â and î are separate. In the Moldovan language, only the word "română" (Romanian) and "România" (Romania) are written with â, officially.

Romanian sunt is written as sînt in Moldovan. However, in Moldovan Cyrillic, it is variably written sunt or sînt. Although it is actually pronounced sînt in both languages, the Romanian justification for writing sunt is that it is etymologically correct and that it brings Romanian closer orthographically to other Romance languages. Many Moldovans who use "î/â" spellings write sânt, which is not an officially accepted spelling in either country.

It must be noted that, before the 1990s, Romanian used the same orthography as Moldovan (with just the character î and sînt). The decision to change the orthography to the â/î/sunt format was made by the Romanian Academy in 1993.

In both countries, the official versions are not always respected. For example, some Romanian newspapers use the "î"/"sînt" spelling (Academia Caţavencu among others), while many Moldovan newspapers use "î/â/sunt" spelling. ('Flux', Accente, Timpul, Jurnal de Chisinau, Contrafort, Moldova Suverana, Ziarul de Garda etc).

Only very rarely are "română" and derivatives are written using "î", and most people from either country will consider it to be incorrect usage.

Comparison Romanian/Moldovan

The sample below taken from the Constitutions of Moldova and Romania demonstrates that a formal text in Romanian and Moldovan may be identical. The colloquial languages show more difference, which varies over the area.

Moldova File:FlagOfMoldova.png	Romania	English
TITLUL I: Principii Generale	TITLUL I: Principii Generale	FIRST TITLE: General Principles
Articolul 1 Statul Republica Moldova	Articolul 1 Statul român	Article 1 (Romanian/Republic of Moldova State)
(1) Republica Moldova este un stat suveran şi independent, unitar şi indivizibil.	(1) România este stat naţional, suveran şi independent, unitar şi indivizibil.	(1) Romania/Republic of Moldova is a national, independent, united, and indivisible state.
(2) Forma de guvernămînt a statului este republica.	(2) Forma de guvernământ a statului român este republica.	(2) The form of government of the state is republican.
(3) Republica Moldova este un stat de drept, democratic, în care demnitatea omului, drepturile şi libertăţile ...	(3) România este stat de drept, democratic şi social, în care demnitatea omului, drepturile şi libertăţile ...	Romania/Republic of Moldova is a state of law, democratic and social, in which the human dignity, rights and liberties...
		Links to the official page of Constitution for both countries

Notes

• The Cyrillic script has not been in official use in the Republic of Moldova since independence 1989, but is official in Transnistria, and is still used by smaller groups elsewhere.

• Ethnologue report for Moldova

• Interview with Vasile Stati, Vremea

• World Bank, Reviews of National Policies for Education: Moldova, p. 51

• The Moldovan Ministry of Education: Gaining Moldovan citizenship (in Romanian)

• The Moldovan Ministry of Education: Pre-university education (in Romanian)

• "Bessarabian teachers perfect themselves in Galaţi, from Viaţa Liberă a Galaţi-based weekly (in Romanian)

• Ion Morei: The Moldovan langage is identical to the Romanian language, Moldova Azi, 10 September 2002

• Din nou fără burse, Jurnal de Chişinău, 25 May 2004

• Academy of Sciences of Moldova website

• Language in Moldova - observations in streets and houses in the Republic of Moldova by Diana Nissler

• Grenoble 2003, pp 89-93

• Kogan Page 2004, p 291 ; IHT, 16 June 2000, p. 2 ; Dyer 1999 , 2005

• Stati 2003

References

• Grenoble, Lenore A (2003) Language Policy in the Soviet Union, Springer, ISBN 1402012985
• Stati, V.N. Dicţionar moldovenesc-românesc. Chisinau: Tipografia Centrala (Biblioteca Pro Moldova), 2003. (ISBN 9975782485)
• Bruchis, M. (1982). One Step Back, Two Steps Forward. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs). (ISBN 0880330023)
• Bruchis, M. (1984). Nations, Nationalities, Peoples. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs). (ISBN 0880330570)
• Bruchis, M. (1988). USSR Language and Realities. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs). (ISBN 088033147X)
• Dumbrava, V. (2004). Sprachkonflikt Und Sprachbewusstsein In Der Republik Moldova: Eine Empirische Studie In Gemischtethnischen Familien (Sprache, Mehrsprachigkeit Und Sozialer Wandel). Bern: Peter Lang Publishing. (ISBN 3631507283)
• 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.
• Grigore Ureche, Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei, Litera, 1997 (ISBN 9975740553)
• Heitmann, K., 1989, Moldauisch. In Holtus, G., Metzeltin, M. and Schmitt, C. (eds), Lexicon der Romanschinen Linguistik, Tübingen, vol 3. 508-21.

External links

• Conference presentation by Tamara Cărăuş, about the identity issues in Moldova
• Text collected by Jesse Schuld, stating that Moldovan is a dialect of Romanian
• Essay on Language in Moldavia by Diana Nissler, stating that the language of Moldova is Romanian
• Article by Attila Demkó, stating that Moldavians and Romanians have a common language
• Moldovan (Cyrillic) alphabet and pronunciation. The entry states that Moldovan is a dialect of Romanian, but the sample text proves the identity of the two.
• Songs with lyrics in Moldovan, a demonstration of the amalgamation of Romanian and Russian, or so called "jargon" (MP3)
• Constitutional Court of Transnistria site in Moldovan-Cyrillic (куртя конституционалэ)
• Columbia Encyclopedia: Article on the Romanian language, stating that it is spoken by 3 million people in Moldova
• Columbia Encyclopedia: Article on Moldova, stating that Moldovan is virtually indistinguishable from Romanian

• Moldova
• Languages of Moldova
• Romanian language