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{{Short description|Outdated name for the Romanian language in Moldova}}{{Hatnote|Not to be confused with Moldavian dialect, one of several dialects of the Romanian language.}}{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}

factoids

ˈlimba moldoveˈne̯askÉ™|}}| family = Indo-European| family2 = Romance| familycolor = Indo-EuropeanMoldovan Cyrillic alphabet (Transnistria)>Latin alphabet (Ukraine)}}{{flag>Transnistria}}Ukraine}}| isoexception = none| glotto = none| ietf = ro-MD| iso1 = mo| iso1comment = (deprecated)| iso2 = mol| iso2comment = (deprecated)| iso3comment = (deprecated)| iso3 = mol}}{{Eastern Romance languages}}Moldovan (Latin alphabet: ; Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet: ), also called Moldavian, is one of the two local names for the Romanian language in Moldova.{{harvnb|Kogan Page|2004|p=242}}.WEB, Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission, A Field Guide to the Main Languages of Europe – Spot That Language and How to Tell Them Apart, 2008,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151117032940weblink">weblink 3rd, 7 April 2020, 17 November 2015, dead, Moldovan was declared the official language of Moldova in Article 13 of the constitution adopted in 1994,WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080226205217weblink">weblink dead, Article 13, line 1, Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, 26 February 2008, while the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Moldova used the name Romanian. In 2003, the Moldovan parliament adopted a law defining Moldovan and Romanian as glottonyms for the same language.WEB, Politics of National Conception of Moldova,weblink 10 March 2014, Law No. 546/12-19-2003, ro, 10 March 2014,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140310213233weblink">weblink live, In 2013, the Constitutional Court of Moldova interpreted that Article 13 of the constitution is superseded by the Declaration of Independence,NEWS, Hotărâre Nr. 36 din 05.12.2013 privind interpretarea articolului 13 alin. (1) din ConstituÈ›ie în corelaÈ›ie cu Preambulul ConstituÈ›iei È™i DeclaraÈ›ia de Independență a Republicii Moldova (Sesizările nr. 8b/2013 È™i 41b/2013), Constitutional Court of Moldova, 124. ... Prin urmare, Curtea consideră că prevederea conÈ›inută în DeclaraÈ›ia de Independență referitoare la limba română ca limbă de stat a Republicii Moldova prevalează asupra prevederii referitoare la limba moldovenească conÈ›inute în articolul 13 al ConstituÈ›iei., 124. ... Therefore, the Court considers that the provision contained in the Declaration of Independence regarding the Romanian language as the state language of the Republic of Moldova prevails over the provision regarding the Moldovan language contained in Article 13 of the Constitution., ro,weblink 20 December 2013, 5 March 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160305051137weblink">weblink live, thus giving official status to the name Romanian.NEWS, 2013-12-05, Moldovan court rules official language is 'Romanian', replacing Soviet-flavored 'Moldovan', Fox News, Associated Press,weblink 2013-12-07,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131209102718weblink">weblink 2013-12-09, NEWS,weblink Chisinau Recognizes Romanian As Official Language, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 5 December 2013, 11 March 2014, 23 September 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160923021555weblink">weblink live, The breakaway region of Transnistria continues to recognize Moldovan as one of its official languages, alongside Russian and Ukrainian.WEB, 24 December 1995, Article 12 of the Constitution of Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublika,weblink 14 July 2016, kspmr.idknet.com, 8 August 2018,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180808234002weblink">weblink live, Ukraine also continues to make a distinction between Moldovan and Romanian, with one village declaring its language to be Romanian and another declaring it to be Moldovan, though Ukrainian officials have announced an intention to remove the legal status of Moldovan.NEWS,weblink Ministerul de Externe: Bogdan Aurescu cere Ucrainei să recunoască oficial inexistenÈ›a 'limbii moldoveneÈ™ti', Digi24, 19 June 2021, ro, 13 September 2021, 7 November 2021,weblink live, On 16 March 2023, the Moldovan Parliament approved a law on referring to the national language as Romanian in all legislative texts and the constitution. On 22 March, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, promulgated the law.NEWS, PreÈ™edinta Maia Sandu a promulgat Legea care confirmă că limba de stat a Republicii Moldova este cea română, Presidency of the Republic of Moldova, Astăzi am promulgat Legea care confirmă un adevăr istoric È™i incontestabil: limba de stat a Republicii Moldova este cea română., Today I have promulgated the law that confirms a historical and indisputable truth: the state language of the Republic of Moldova is Romanian., ro,weblink The language of the Moldovans had for centuries been interchangeably identified by both terms, but during the time of the Soviet Union, Moldovan, or as it was called at the time, Moldavian, was the only term officially recognized. Soviet policy emphasized for the first time in history{{cn|date=April 2024}} distinctions between Moldavians and Romanians based on their allegedly different histories. Its resolution declared Moldavian a distinct Romance language from Romanian.While a majority of Moldovans with higher education,WEB,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131214193454weblink">weblink dead, CBS AXA/IPP nov. 2012, 14 December 2013, as well as a majority of inhabitants of the capital city of ChiÈ™inău,WEB, XLS,weblink Population by main nationalities, mother tongue and language usually spoken, 2004, National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova, 14 July 2016, 14 November 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131114010949weblink">weblink live, call their language Romanian, most rural residents indicated Moldovan as their native language in the 2004 census. In schools in Moldova, the term "Romanian language" has been used since independence.WEB, 2004-10-04, Ministerul Educatiei a Republicii Moldova : Acte Normative È™i PublicaÈ›ii : Acte normative È™i legislative : Domeniul învațămîntului preuniversitar,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070928105636weblink">weblink 2007-09-28, 2021-08-24, www.edu.md, ro, The variety of Romanian spoken in Moldova is the Moldavian subdialect, which is spread approximately within the territory of the former Principality of Moldavia (now split between Romania, Moldova and Ukraine). Moldavian is considered one of the five major spoken varieties of Romanian. However, all five are written identically, and Moldova and Romania share the same literary language.* BOOK, James, Minahan, Miniature Empires: A Historical Dictionary of the Newly Independent States, Greenwood, 1989, 276,

• WEB, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Moldova, Country Study,weblink 3 June 2008, 5 August 2012,weblink" title="archive.today/20120805060125weblink">weblink live,
• Encyclopædia Britannia (online ed.), quoted in WEB, Descriptive Cataloging: Romanian Language Codes – Moldavian or Romanian?, Slavic Cataloging Manual, Indiana University,weblink 3 June 2008, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160303173827weblink">weblink 2016-03-03,
• WEB, A country-by-country update on constitutional politics in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071113224009weblink">weblink 13 November 2007, 3 June 2008, NYU LAW, 11, 1–2,
• WEB, The Sovietization of Moldova,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080327035249weblink">weblink 27 March 2008, 3 June 2008,
• WEB, Ethnologue, Moldova,weblink live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20080409200226weblink">weblink 9 April 2008, 3 June 2008,
• WEB, Disillusionment with Democracy: Notes from the Field in Moldova,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20060913025352weblink">weblink 13 September 2006, 3 June 2008,
• WEB, Languages across Europe: Moldovan, BBC,weblink 23 December 2019, 7 November 2021,weblink live, {{in lang|ru}} L. I. Lukht, B. P. Narumov. "" [Romanian language]. [Languages of the world]. [Romance languages]. Ðœ., Academia, Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2001.{{clarify inline|reason=Adapted from foreign citation style, unclear what the nature of the source is – journal article maybe? If so what is the article title and what is the journal?|(can't find: GetWiki:DATE)
  |date=March 2023}}

The standard alphabet used in Moldova is equivalent to the Romanian alphabet, which uses the Latin script. Until 1918, varieties of the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet were used. The Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet (derived from the Russian alphabet and standardised in the Soviet Union) was used in 1924–1932 and 1938–1989 and remains in use in Transnistria.Denis Deletant, Slavonic Letters in Moldova, Wallachia & Transylvania from the Tenth to the Seventeenth Centuries, Ed. Enciclopedicӑ, Bucharest, 1991.

History and politics

(File:Stamp of Moldova 413.gif|alt=|thumb|1999 Moldovan stamp celebrating 10 years since reverting to the Latin script)(File:Vietile sfintilor, Chisinau, 1928.jpg|alt=|thumb|Book in a supposed Moldovan language published in interwar Romania)The history of the Moldovan language refers to the historical evolution of the glottonym Moldavian/Moldovan in Moldova and beyond. It is closely tied to the region's political status, as during long periods of rule by Russia and the Soviet Union, officials emphasized the language's name as part of separating the Moldovans from those people who began to identify as Romanian in a different nation-building process. Cyrillic script was in use. From a linguistic perspective, Moldovan is an alternative name for the varieties of the Romanian language spoken in the Republic of Moldova (see History of the Romanian language).Before 1918, during the period between the wars, and after the union of Bessarabia with Romania, scholars did not have consensus that Moldovans and the Romanians formed a single ethnic group.{{sfn|King|2000|pp=57–59}} The Moldovan peasants had grown up in a different political entity and missed the years of creating a pan-Romanian national political consciousness. They identified as Moldovans speaking the language "Moldovan". This caused reactions from pan-Romanian nationalists.{{sfn|King|1999|p=120}} The concept of the distinction of Moldovan from Romanian was explicitly stated only in the early 20th century. It accompanied the raising of national awareness among Moldovans, with the Soviets emphasizing distinctions between Moldavians and Romanians.BOOK, Fedor, Helen, Belarus and Moldova: Country Studies, 1995, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC, 121–122,weblink 4 June 2020, en, Stalin justified the creation of the Moldavian SSR by claiming that a distinct "Moldavian" language was an indicator that "Moldavians" were a separate nationality from the Romanians in Romania. In order to give greater credence to this claim, in 1940 Stalin imposed the Cyrillic alphabet on "Moldavian" to make it look more like Russian and less like Romanian; archaic Romanian words of Slavic origin were imposed on "Moldavian"; Russian loanwords and phrases were added to "Moldavian"; and a new theory was advanced that "Moldavian" was at least partially Slavic in origin. 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. Proper names were subjected to Russianization (see Glossary) as well. Russian endings were added to purely Romanian names, and individuals were referred to in the Russian manner by using a patronymic (based on one's father's first name) together with a first name., 8 March 2021,weblink live, Moldavian has also been recorded by the 1960s' Romanian Linguistic Atlas as the answer to the question "What [language] do you speak?" in parts of Western Moldavia (GalaÈ›i and IaÈ™i counties).BOOK, Arvinte, Vasile, Român, românesc, România, 1983, Editura ȘtiinÈ›ifică È™i Enciclopedică, BucureÈ™ti, 50, Major developments since the fall of the Soviet Union include resuming use of a Latin script rather than Cyrillic letters in 1989, and several changes in the statutory name of the official 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 were dropped, and it was officially known simply as — 'the state language'.Moldovan was assigned the code mo in ISO 639-1 and code mol in ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3.SIL International: ISO 639 code sets: Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: mol {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011195553weblink |date=11 October 2012 }} Since November 2008, these have been deprecated, leaving ro and ron (639-2/T) and rum (639-2/B), the language identifiers {{as of | 2013 | lc = on}} to be used for the variant of the Romanian language also known as Moldavian and Moldovan in English, the ISO 639-2 Registration Authority said in explaining the decision.WEB,weblink Code Changes: ISO 639-2 Registration Authority, US Library of Congress, The identifiers mo and mol are deprecated, leaving ro and ron (639-2/T) and rum (639-2/B) the current language identifiers to be used for the variant of the Romanian language also known as Moldavian and Moldovan in English and moldave in French. The identifiers mo and mol will not be assigned to different items, and recordings using these identifiers will not be invalid, 29 December 2017, 28 April 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190428235442weblink">weblink live, WEB,weblink ISO 639 JAC decision re mo/mol, 3 November 2008, www.alvestrand.no, 26 February 2011, 7 June 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110607074517weblink">weblink live, In 1989, the contemporary Romanian version of the Latin alphabet was adopted as the official script of the Moldavian SSR.{{in lang|ro}} s: (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 mother tongue."

Since independence

The Declaration of IndependenceWEB, DOC,weblink Declaratia de Independenta a Republicii Moldova, Moldovan Declaration of Independence, ro, europa.md, 27 August 1991, unfit,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090305220335weblink">weblink 5 March 2009, of Moldova (27 August 1991) named the official language as "Romanian". The 1994 constitution, passed under a Communist government, declared "Moldovan" as the state language.When in 1993 the Romanian Academy changed the official orthography of the Romanian language, the Institute of Linguistics at the Academy of Sciences of Moldova did not initially make these changes, which however have since been adopted.{{source needed|date=March 2021}}In 1996, the Moldovan president Mircea Snegur attempted to change the official name of the language back to Romanian; the Moldovan Parliament, Communist-dominated, dismissed the proposal as promoting "Romanian expansionism".In 2003, a Moldovan–Romanian dictionary ( (2003)) by Vasile Stati was published aiming to prove that there existed two distinct languages. Reacting to this, 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 Russian loanwords. In Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, {{Interlanguage link multi|Ion Bărbuță|ro}}, described the dictionary as "an absurdity, serving political purposes". Stati, however, accused both of promoting "Romanian colonialism". At that point, a group of Romanian linguists adopted a resolution stating that promotion of the notion of a distinct Moldovan language is an anti-scientific campaign.WEB,weblink Ziare.ro, Linguists condemn "Moldovan language", 10 November 2007, ro, 4 August 2020,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20200804012158weblink">weblink dead, In 2003, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted a law defining Moldovan and Romanian as designations for the same language ((:wikt:glottonym|glottonyms)). In the 2004 census, 16.5% (558,508) of the 3,383,332 people living in Moldova declared Romanian as their native language, whereas 60% declared Moldovan. Most of the latter responses were from rural populations. While the majority of the population in the capital city of ChiÈ™inău gave their language as "Romanian", in the countryside more than six-sevenths of the Romanian/Moldovan speakers indicated "Moldovan" as their native language, reflecting historic conservatism.WEB,weblink 2004 Population Census, National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova, 14 July 2016, 13 November 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121113163934weblink">weblink live, In schools in Moldova, the term Romanian language has been used since independence.In December 2007, Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin asked for the term to be changed to Moldovan language, but due to public pressure against that choice, the term was not changed.WEB, 18 December 2007, Professors from the University of Balti protest against replacing 'Romanian language' with 'Moldovan language',weblink dead,weblink" title="archive.today/20151016045349weblink">weblink 16 October 2015, 16 October 2015, DECA-Press, moldova.org, In December 2013, the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the Declaration of Independence takes precedence over the Constitution and that the state language should be called Romanian.By March 2017, the presidential website under Igor Dodon had changed the Romanian language option to Moldovan,WEB, 2017-03-02, PreÈ™edinÈ›ia Republicii Moldova,weblink live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170302033610weblink">weblink 2017-03-02, 2020-12-24, presedinte.md, which was described to be "in accordance with the constitution" by said president. The change was reverted on 24 December 2020, the day Maia Sandu assumed office.WEB, 2020-12-24, PreÈ™edinÈ›ia Republicii Moldova,weblink live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20201224154543weblink">weblink 2020-12-24, 2020-12-24, presedinte.md, In June 2021, during a meeting between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania Bogdan Aurescu and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, the former asked Ukraine to recognize the nonexistence of the Moldovan language to improve the situation of the Romanians in Ukraine. Kuleba responded to this saying that they were trying to do the paperwork for this as soon as possible. On 30 November 2022, during another meeting between Aurescu and Kuleba, Aurescu reiterated this request.NEWS,weblink FOTO România, solicitare fermă pentru Ucraina: Kievul să nu recunoască 'limba moldovenească', Știri pe surse, 30 November 2022, ro, 3 December 2022, 3 December 2022,weblink live, This happened again during a phone call between the two ministers on 12 April 2023, after Moldova had legally changed its official language to Romanian.NEWS,weblink Bogdan Aurescu vrea ca Ucraina să renunÈ›e la sintagma "limba moldovenească". Cum au reacÈ›ionat autoritățile ucrainene, Publika TV, 13 April 2023, ro, On 2 March 2023, the Moldovan parliament voted to replace the phrases "Moldovan language", "state language" and "official language" in Moldovan legislation with the phrase "Romanian language". The change was presented not as a constitutional change, but only a technical one, as it would implement the 2013 decision of the Constitutional Court of Moldova. This change was supported by the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity and was strongly opposed by the Bloc of Communists and Socialists.WEB, Video ÃŽmbrânceli È™i scandal în Parlamentul de la ChiÈ™inău / "Limba moldovenească" dispare din toate legile Republicii Moldova,weblink HotNews.ro, ro, 2 March 2023, 2 March 2023,weblink live, WEB, 2 March 2023, Decizie cu scântei: "limba moldovenească" va fi înlocuită cu "limba română" în legislaÈ›ie,weblink Europa Liberăb Moldova, ro, 17 March 2023, 7 March 2023,weblink live, The Academy of Sciences of Moldova also supported this decision.NEWS, 28 February 2023, 'Ar pune capăt infinitelor discuÈ›ii inutile'. AȘM susÈ›ine iniÈ›iativa deputaÈ›ilor PAS pentru substituirea în textul legilor R. Moldova a sintagmei 'limba moldovenească' cu sintagma 'limba română', ro, Ziarul de Gardă,weblink 2 March 2023, 2 March 2023,weblink live, The bill was approved on its second and final reading on 16 March.NEWS, 17 March 2023, Moldovan Parliament Approves Final Reading of Romanian Language Bill, en, RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty,weblink 2023-03-18, 17 March 2023,weblink live, NEWS, 16 March 2023, Sintagma "limba română" va fi introdusă în toate legile Republicii Moldova,weblink 2023-03-18, Moldpres, ro, 17 March 2023,weblink live, This attracted criticism from Russia. Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, claimed that "the Romanian language should be renamed to Moldovan, and not the opposite".NEWS, 18 March 2023, Maria Zaharova, supărată foc: Limba română trebuie redenumită în "limba moldovenească" ÅŸi nu viceversa,weblink HotNews.ro, ro, Romanian foreign minister Aurescu replied to this by saying, "This so-called Moldovan language does not exist, it is an artificial construct, which was created by the Soviet Union and has later been used by Russia for disinformation purposes".NEWS, Rubica, Andreea, 20 March 2023, Aurescu: Limba moldovenească nu există. Este o construcÈ›ie artificială creată de Uniunea Sovietică, ro, adevarul.ro,weblink 2023-03-22, To this, Zakharova replied back by saying, "Sr. Bogdan Aurescu never existed either, but in the end he was created. Now it is possible to call him an artificial construct."NEWS, 22 March 2023, Maria Zaharova îl atacă pe Bogdan Aurescu în scandalul "limbii moldoveneÅŸti": "Nici ministrul român nu a existat niciodată", ro, Digi24.ro,weblink 2023-03-22, The president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, promulgated the law on 22 March. It was published on the {{ill|Monitorul Oficial al Republicii Moldova|ro}} ("Official Bulletin of the Republic of Moldova"), a state publication where all promulgated laws are published, on 24 March, thus entering into force.NEWS, 24 March 2023, Legea prin care sintagma "limba moldovenească" a fost înlocuită cu "limba română" în legislaÈ›ia naÈ›ională, inclusiv în ConstituÈ›ie, a intrat în vigoare, ro, Ziarul National,weblink 2023-03-24, On 30 March, the changes appeared on the Constitution of Moldova.NEWS,weblink Modificat È™i în ConstituÈ›ie: "Limba de stat a Republicii Moldova este limba română" - FOTO, ProTV ChiÈ™inău, 30 March 2023, ro, On 13 April, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu requested the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to relinquish the recognition of the Moldovan language in Ukraine.WEB, Gridina, Marina, 2023-04-13, Aurescu asked Kuleba to give up the phrase "Moldovan language" in Ukraine,weblink 2023-04-18, Moldova, en-US, However, as of June 2023, Ukraine still continues to make Moldovan-language schoolbooks.WEB,weblink Ucraina sfidează comunitatea românească È™i tipăreÈ™te manuale de limba È™i literatura "moldovenească", în ciuda solicitărilor BucureÈ™tiului È™i ChiÈ™inăului, 12 June 2023, On 18 August, Prime Minister of Romania Marcel Ciolacu and Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal had a meeting in Bucharest. Among the things that were discussed was the issue of the Romanian minority in Ukraine. Ciolacu said that Romania sought for the Romanians in Ukraine to have exactly the same rights as the Ukrainians in Romania and also for the removal of the Moldovan language from Ukrainian legislation.NEWS,weblink VIDEO Premierul Ucrainei, la BucureÈ™ti / Marcel Ciolacu: Am stabilit dublarea tranzitului de cereale prin România / Dorim pentru românii din Ucraina exact aceleaÈ™i drepturi de care se bucură ucrainenii din România, HotNews, 18 August 2023, ro, Starting from 1 September 2023, the high school in the village of Borysivka () in Odesa Oblast, where Ukrainian Romanians study, replaced the term "Moldovan language" with "Romanian language" in its curriculum.NEWS,weblink Ucrainenii încep să admită că Limba moldovenească nu există, Radu, Pop, Știri pe surse, 27 August 2023, ro, On 10 October, during a meeting between Ciolacu and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ciolacu once again requested that the Ukrainian authorities stop recognizing the existence of the Moldovan language. On the same day, during a meeting with Romanian journalists, Zelenskyy was asked if Ukraine would stop recognising the Moldovan language. He responded by saying that he did not see this as a global problem and that it was not an urgent issue for a country at war but that the Ukrainian government would meet in a week or two and that a solution to the issue "I'm sure everyone will be happy" with would be found.NEWS,weblink VIDEO Zelenski, despre legea minorităților È™i limba moldovenească: Această problemă nu e presantă pentru mine. Guvernele vor găsi soluÈ›ii, Digi24, 10 October 2023, ro, On 18 October, Ukrainian authorities promised to "resolve the issue of artificial separation between the Romanian and "Moldovan" languages by implementing appropriate practical measures with due consideration of all legal aspects."WEB, 2023-10-18, Спільна заява прем'єр-міністрів України та Румунії за результатами першого засідання урядів двох країн,weblink Кабінет Міністрів України, uk, WEB, 2023-10-19, Bucharest Says Kyiv Recognizes Romanian As Official Language of Romanian Minority,weblink Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Former Moldovan president Igor Dodon, as well as the Revival Party, have criticised this decision.WEB,weblink Dodon È™i "RenaÈ™tere", indignaÈ›i că Ucraina nu mai recunoaÈ™te existenÈ›a "limbii moldoveneÈ™ti": "Au refuzat identitatea moldovenilor", 19 October 2023, According to an expert on Ukrainian affairs interviewed by the Romanian newspaper Libertatea, "Marcel Ciolacu's visit to Ukraine marked the end of a diplomatic effort by the Republic of Moldova and Romania in the face of Kyiv but, at the same time, it marks only the beginning of a difficult, lasting process within the Ukrainian state." Thus, the Moldovan language would not have been derecognised by Ukraine on 18 October, this was only in process.NEWS,weblink DOCUMENT OFICIAL. Ce nu au spus guvernele României È™i Ucrainei: schimbarea "limbii moldoveneÈ™ti" în "limba română" e abia în faza de "se înaintează propuneri", Marin, Gherman, Libertatea, 16 November 2023, ro, On 16 November, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ukrainian government stated that it has initiated steps to abolish Moldovan language with Romanianweblinkweblink On 13 January 2024, Ukrainian newspaper Dumska reported that the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science had announced all 16 schools in Odesa Oblast teaching "Moldovan" had dropped the term in favor of Romanian.NEWS,weblink Останні молдавські школи Одеської області перейменували рідну мову на румунську: це відкриває низку можливостей для учнів, Dumska, 13 January 2024, uk, However, Anatol Popescu, president of the Bessarabia National–Cultural Association, reported that in the Romanian school of {{ill|Utkonosivka|ro|Erdec-Burnu, Ismail|uk|Утконосівка}} (), the term had been replaced with "language of the national minority" instead, protesting against this and against other issues that had been reported regarding the school's intended renaming and reorganization into a high school.NEWS,weblink Noi probleme la o È™coală românească din Ucraina. "Limba moldovenească" a fost înlocuită cu "limba minorității naÈ›ionale", nu cu româna, Ziarul NaÈ›ional, 30 January 2024, ro,

Controversy

{{See also|Moldovenism}}File:Md2002 kramar.jpg|alt=|thumb|right|Demonstration in ChiÈ™inăuChiÈ™inăuThe matter of whether or not Moldovan is a separate language continues to be contested politically within and beyond the Republic of Moldova. The 1989 Language Law of the Moldavian SSR, which is still in effect in Moldova, according to the Constitution,Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, Title 7, Article 7. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060208223502weblink |date=8 February 2006 }}: "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." asserts a "linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity". Article 13 of the Moldovan Constitution used to name it "the national language of the country" (the original uses the phrase , which literally means 'the language of the state') until 2023. In March 2023 the Parliament of Moldova has approved a law on referring to the national language as Romanian in all legislative texts and the constitution following the 2013 decision of the Constitutional Court of Moldova that gives primacy to the text of the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Moldova that calls the national language Romanian. The law was approved by the parliament on 16 March, and the President of Moldova promulgated the law on 22 March.In the breakaway region of Transnistria, Moldovan is declared an official language, together with Ukrainian and Russian.Standard Moldovan is widely considered to be identical to standard Romanian.Kogan 2004, p. 291; IHT{{clarify|date=March 2013}}, 16 June 2000, p. 2; Dyer 1999, 2005. 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. King wrote in 2000 that "in the main, Moldovan in its standard form was more Romanian by the 1980s than at any point in its history".{{harvnb|King|2000}}.In 2002, the Moldovan Minister of Justice Ion Morei said that Romanian and Moldovan were the same language and that the Constitution of Moldova should be amended to reflect this—not by substituting Romanian for the word Moldovan, but by adding that "Romanian and Moldovan are the same language".NEWS, 10 September 2002, Ion Morei: limba moldoveneasca este identica cu cea romana, Ion Morei: The Moldovan language is identical to the Romanian language, Moldova Azi,weblink dead, 2 December 2005, 24 October 2008,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20081024104525weblink">weblink The 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."NEWS, Lozinschi, Raisa, 25 May 2004, Din nou fără burse, ro, Jurnal de ChiÈ™inău,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20070311131712weblink">weblink 11 March 2007, 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".WEB,weblink Åžtiri de ultima ora si ultimele ÅŸtiri, Mediafax, 16 March 2021, 7 November 2021,weblink live, In the 2004 census, of the citizens living in Moldova, 60% identified Moldovan as their native language; 16.5% chose Romanian. While 37% of all urban Romanian/Moldovan speakers identified Romanian as their native language, in the countryside 86% of the Romanian/Moldovan speakers indicated Moldovan, a historic holdover. Independent studies found a Moldovan linguistic identity asserted in particular by the rural population and post-Soviet political class.{{harvnb|Ciscel|2008|p=104}}. In a survey conducted in four villages near the border with Romania, when asked about their native language the interviewees identified the following: Moldovan 53%, Romanian 44%, and Russian 3%.{{harvnb|ArambaÈ™a|2008|pp=358, 364}}.In November 2007, when reporting on EU Council deliberations regarding an agreement between the European Community and Moldova, the Romanian reporter Jean Marin Marinescu included a recommendation to avoid formal references to the "Moldovan language".WEB, DOC, Marian-Jean, Marinescu,weblink Report on the proposal for a Council decision concerning the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Community and Republic of Moldova on the readmission of persons residing without authorisation, European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, 7 November 2007, 14 July 2016, 24 September 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150924202422weblink">weblink live, The Romanian press speculated that the EU banned the usage of the phrase "Moldovan language".NEWS, Vulpe, Marius, 2007-10-20, Orban a eliminat "limba moldovenească" de pe site-ul Comisiei Europene, ro, Adevarul,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20071202010520weblink">weblink 2 December 2007, However, the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, denied these allegations. She said that the Moldovan language is referred to in the 1998 Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Moldova, and hence it is considered a part of the acquis, binding on all member states.Answer given by Mrs Ferrero-Waldner on behalf of the Commission {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228100914weblink |date=28 February 2021 }}, 19 December 2007.

Orthography

{{See also|Romanian alphabet|Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet}}File:SignInMoldovanCyrillic.JPG|thumb|A welcome sign in Moldovan Cyrillic in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria, in 2012. The phrase in Latin alphabetLatin alphabetThe language was generally written in a Romanian Cyrillic alphabet (based on the Old Church Slavonic alphabet) before the 19th century. Both Cyrillic and, rarely, Latin, were used until after World War I; after Bessarabia was included in Romania in 1918, the Cyrillic alphabet was officially forbidden in the region. In the interwar period, Soviet authorities in the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic alternately used Latin or Cyrillic for writing the language, mirroring the political goals of the moment. Between 1940 and 1989, i.e., during Soviet rule, the new Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet replaced Latin as the official alphabet in Moldova (then Moldavian SSR).BOOK, Grenoble, Lenore A.,weblink Language Policy in the Soviet Union, 2003, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 0-306-48083-2, Dordrecht, 89–93, 24 September 2016, 19 March 2023,weblink live, In 1989, the Latin script was once again adopted in Moldova by Law 3462 of 31 August 1989, which provided rules for transliterating Cyrillic to Latin, along with the orthographic rules used in Romania at the time. Transnistria, however, uses the Cyrillic alphabet.Though not immediately adopting these, the Academy of Sciences of Moldova acknowledged both the Romanian Academy's decision of 1993 and the orthographic reform of 2005."La solicitarea Consiliului ȘtiinÈ›ific al Institutului de Filologie al Academiei de ȘtiinÈ›e a Moldovei din 24 noiembrie 2009 È™i în conformitate cu Hotărârea Adunării Generale a Academiei Române din 17 februarie 1993, privind revenirea la â È™i sunt în grafia limbii române, Consiliul Suprem pentru Știință È™i Dezvoltare Tehnologică, întrunit în ziua de 25 decembrie 2009, a hotărât să se adreseze Parlamentului Republicii Moldova cu rugămintea de a lua o hotărâre în problema revenirii în grafia limbii române la utilizarea lui â în interiorul cuvintelor, a formei sunt (suntem, sunteÈ›i) È™i la normele ortografice cuprinse în DicÈ›ionarul ortografic, ortoepic È™i morfologic al limbii române (DOOM, ediÈ›ia a II-a, BucureÈ™ti, 2005)." {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411073527weblink |date=11 April 2022 }} Modificări în ortografia limbii române, nr. 1(16), martie 2010 In 2000, the Moldovan Academy recommended adopting the spelling rules used in Romania,The new edition of DicÈ›ionarul ortografic al limbii române (ortoepic, morfologic, cu norme de punctuaÈ›ie) [The orthographic dictionary of the Romanian language (orthoepic, morphological, with punctuation rules)] – introduced by the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and recommended for publishing following a conference on 15 November 2000 – applies the decision of the General Meeting of the Romanian Academy from 17 February 1993, regarding the return to "â" and "sunt" in the orthography of the Romanian language. ((:ro:Imagine:Asm lbro3.jpg|Introduction, Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova)) and in 2010 launched a schedule for the transition to the new rules that was completed in 2011 (regarding its publications).WEB,weblink Gheorghe Duca: Trebuie schimbată atitudinea de sorginte proletară față de savanÈ›i È™i în genere față de intelectuali, 4 June 2010, 3 January 2011, ro, Allmoldova,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110722170555weblink">weblink 22 July 2011, dead, However, these changes were not implemented by Moldova's Ministry of Education, so the old orthographic conventions were maintained in the education sector such as in school textbooks.On 17 October 2016, Minister of Education Corina Fusu signed Order No. 872 on the application of the revised spelling rules as adopted by the Moldovan Academy of Sciences, coming into force on the day of signing.WEB,weblink Normele ortografice ale scrierii lui "â" È™i "sunt" în grafia limbii române – obligatorii în instituÈ›iile de învățământ, The orthographic norms of "â" and "sunt" in the Romanian language - mandatory in educational institutions, ro, Moldovan Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, 18 October 2016, 25 September 2018, 8 November 2021,weblink live, Since then the spelling used by institutions subordinated to the Ministry of Education is in line with the spelling norms used in Romania since 1993. This order, however, has no application to other government institutions, nor has Law 3462 been amended to reflect these changes; thus, those institutions continue to use the old spelling.

See also

• Eastern Romance substratum
• Legacy of the Roman Empire
• Moldova–Romania relations
• Thraco-Roman
• The Balkan language area

References

Citations

{{Reflist|30em}}

Bibliography

• JOURNAL, ArambaÈ™a, Mihaela Narcisa, 2008, Everyday Life on the Eastern Border of the EU – Between Romanianism and Moldovanism in the Border Area of the Republic of Moldova and Romania, South-East Europe Review, 11, 3, 355–369, 10.5771/1435-2869-2008-3-355, 43293277, free,
• BOOK, Ciscel, Matthew H., Multilingualism in Post-Soviet Countries, Multilingual Matters, 2008, Pavlenko, Aneta, Bristol, 99–121, Uneasy Compromise: Language and Education in Moldova,
• BOOK, Dyer, Donald Leroy, The Romanian Dialect of Moldova: A Study in Language and Politics, E. Mellen, 1999, 0-7734-8037-4, Lewiston, NY,
• BOOK, Dyer, Donald Leroy, Studies in Moldovan: The History, Culture, Language and Contemporary Politics of the People of Moldova, Columbia University Press, 1996, 0-88033-351-0, New York,
• BOOK, Dumbrava, V., Sprachkonflikt und Sprachbewusstsein in der Republik Moldova: Eine empirische Studie in gemischtethnischen Familien, Peter Lang, 2004, 3-631-50728-3, Bern, de,
• JOURNAL, King, Charles, 1999, The Ambivalence of Authenticity, or How the Moldovan Language Was Made, Slavic Review, 58, 1, 117–142, 10.2307/2672992, 2672992, 147578687,
• BOOK, King, Charles,weblink The Moldovans: Romania, Russia and the Politics of Culture, Hoover Institution Press, 2000, 0-8179-9792-X, Stanford, California,
• BOOK, Grenoble, Lenore A., Language Policy in the Soviet Union, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, 1-4020-1298-5, Dordrecht,
• BOOK, Istoria României, Bărbulescu, Mihai, Deletant, Dennis, Dennis Deletant, Hitchins, Keith, Keith Hitchins, Papacostea, Șerban, Șerban Papacostea, Teodor, Pompiliu, Corint, 2004, 973-653-514-2, BucureÈ™ti, ro,
• BOOK, Europe Review 2003/2004, Kogan Page, 2004,
• JOURNAL, Movileanu, N., 1993, Din istoria Transnistriei (1924–1940), Revista de istorie a Moldovei, ro, 2,
• JOURNAL, Negru, E., 1999, Introducerea si interzicerea grafiei latine in R.A.S.S.M., Revista de istorie a Moldovei, ro, 3–4,
• BOOK, Stati, V. N., DicÈ›ionar moldovenesc-românesc, Tipografia Centrală (Biblioteca Pro Moldova), 2003, 9975-78-248-5, ChiÈ™inău, ro,
• JOURNAL, Zabarah, Dareg A., 2010, The Linguistic Gordian Knot in Moldova: Repeating the Yugoslav Experience?, Srpski Jezik, 15, 1–2, 187–210,

Further reading

• BOOK, Ciscel, Matthew H., The Language of the Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and Identity in an Ex-Soviet Republic, 2007, 978-0-7391-1443-8, Rowman & Littlefield, Lexington Books, Lanham, – About the identity of the contemporary Moldovans in the context of debates about their language.

External links

{{commons category|Moldovan language}}

• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120331013454weblink">Chase Faucheux, "Language classification and manipulation in Romania and Moldova", thesis, 2006, Louisiana State University
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20090306001437weblink">Eleonora Rusnac, "Translation of Russian loans and irregularities of the spoken language in the Republic of Moldova", Association of Professional Translators of Moldova
• "Moldova" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303043316weblink |date=3 March 2009 }}, Ethnologue report
• Academy of Sciences of Moldova {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011062259weblink |date=11 October 2017 }}
• JOURNAL, CărăuÈ™, Tamara, Republica Moldova: identităţi false, adevărate sau naÅ£ionale?, Republic of Moldova: False, true or national identities?,weblink Contrafort, ChiÅŸinău, Moldova,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20060212220657weblink">weblink 12 February 2006, ro, April–May 2002, {{in lang|ro}}

{{Moldova topics}}{{Romanian language}}{{Authority control}}