Moldovan language
Moldovan is the official name for the
Romanian language in the
Republic of Moldova and in the territory of
Transnistria.
[Kogan Page 2004, p 242] The Constitution of Moldova declares that the Moldovan language is the official language of the state. Most linguists, however, consider standard Moldovan to be identical to standard Romanian.
[Omniglot http://www.omniglot.com/writing/moldovan.htm]"Moldovan" (
graiul moldovenesc, in older sources
limba moldovenească) can also refer to a northern variety or dialect of colloquial Romanian approximately within the territory of the former
Principality of Moldavia (now split between Moldova and
Romania).
Moldovan may be written in either the
Latin alphabet (currently official in the
Republic of Moldova) or in the
Cyrillic alphabet (official in the
unrecognized state of
Transnistria and formerly in the
Moldavian SSR until 1989).
[The Cyrillic script has not been in official use in the Republic of Moldova since 1989, but is official in Transnistria, and is still used by smaller groups elsewhere. For an example, see the Constitutional Court of Transnistria site, written in Moldovan Cyrillic.] The language was assigned code
mo in
ISO 639-1 and code
mol in
ISO 639-2 and
ISO/DIS 639-3.
See main article: History of the Moldovan languageThe history of the Moldovan (Romanian) language in Moldova is closely tied to the region's political status, with long periods of occupation by
Russia and the
Soviet Union influencing the language's name and
orthography. Major recent developments include the return to a Latin script from Cyrillic in 1989 and several changes in the statutory name of the language used in Moldova, from Moldavian to Romanian and back.
|
Major varieties of the Romanian language |
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,
[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."] asserts the real existence of "linguistic Moldo-
Romanian identity".
[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 RSS 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."] 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, thus avoiding the term
national, whose sense is that of
ethnicity). In the
unrecognized state 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
[Kogan Page 2004, p 291 ; IHT, 16 June 2000, p. 2 ; Dyer 1999 , 2005]. Writing about "essential differences", Stati 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".
[King 2000]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".
[Ion Morei: The Moldovan language is identical to the Romanian language, Moldova Azi, 10 September 2002] 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."
[Din nou fără burse, Jurnal de Chişinău, 25 May 2004]The official language of Moldova is regulated by the
Academy of Sciences of Moldova, which calls it
Romanian.
According to the
Gardianul newspaper, Vitalie Valcov, chief of the Department of Statistics and Sociology of Moldova, speaking about the preliminary results of the
2004 Moldovan Census, claimed that about 40% of the respondents (which would be the majority of the Romance-speaking population) reported their
mother language as Romanian.
[Gardianul - 3 November 2004: "Mai multi romani decat «moldoveni»"]There are, however, more differences between the colloquial spoken languages of Moldova and
Romania, most significantly due to the influence of
Russian in Moldova which was less present in Romania.
Main articles: Romanian alphabet, Moldovan alphabet.Latin replaced Cyrillic as the official alphabet for the Moldovan language in 1989. When switching to the Latin alphabet, standard Moldovan adopted entirely the orthographic rules of Romanian at that moment. However, a short time after that, the
Romanian Academy reformed the orthography in order to bring it closer to the standard of the pre-communist era: e.g., based on debatable etymological arguments, the Romanian phoneme previously exclusively transcribed as î (except the derivatives of "român") was to be written â or î, depending on its location in the word; also, the third person plural form of the verb "to be" was to be spelled "sunt" instead of "sînt". The â/î reform had no impact upon the pronunciation (unlike the "sunt/sînt" change). On the other hand, the regulating institution in Moldova, the Institute of Linguistics at the
ASM, has made no similar recommendations.
The result of this reform is some ambiguity in the orthographic practices of both countries. While in Romania, some prestigious publications (such as
Academia Caţavencu,
Cotidianul) refused to apply the new rules based on linguistic arguments, in the Republic of Moldova the issue is seen as mirroring a political attitude. In fact, almost all Moldovan newspapers in Romanian opposing the national ideology of the ruling communist party follow consistently the orthography official in Romania (e.g.,
Timpul,
Jurnal de Chişinău,
Ziarul de Gardă,
Flux, etc.), while the papers voicing pro-governmental positions (e.g., "Moldova Suverană" and rarely "Comunistul") use a mixed orthography from article to article.
In the countryside, some elder people might prefer writing in Cyrillic script, while knowing the Latin script nonetheless.
[Language in Moldova - observations in streets and houses in the Republic of Moldova by Diana Nissler]* Dyer, D. (1999).
The Romanian Dialect of Moldova: A Study in Language and Politics. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. (ISBN 0773480374)
* Dyer, Donald Leroy, ed.
Studies in Moldovan. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs), 1996. (ISBN 0880333510)
* Stati, V.N.
Dicţionar moldovenesc-românesc. [=
Moldovan-Romanian dictionary.] Chişinău: Tipografia Centrală (Biblioteca Pro Moldova), 2003. (ISBN 9975782485)
* 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.
*King, C.
The Moldovans: Romania, Russia and the Politics of Culture, Hoover Institution Press, 2000, ISBN 081799792X.
*
Ethnologue report for Moldova*
Academy of Sciences of Moldova*
Conference presentation by Tamara Cărăuş, about identity issues in Moldova*
Essay on Language in Moldavia by Diana Nissler*
Article by Attila Demkó
