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Moldovan language

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Not to be confused with Moldavian dialect, one of several dialects of the Romanian language.

Moldovan
  • limba moldovenească
  • лимба молдовеняскэ (in Moldovan Cyrillic)
Pronunciation[ˈlimba moldoveˈne̯askə]
Indo-European
Official status
Official language in
 Transnistria
Language codes
ISO 639-1mo (deprecated)
ISO 639-2mol (deprecated)
ISO 639-3mol (deprecated)
GlottologNone
IETFro-MD
Eastern Romance languages
Vulgar Latin language
Substratum
Thraco-Roman culture
Romanian
Aromanian
Megleno-Romanian
Istro-Romanian

Moldovan or Moldavian (Latin alphabet: limba moldovenească, Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet: лимба молдовеняскэ) is one of the two local names for the Romanian language in Moldova.[1][2] Moldovan was declared the official language of Moldova in Article 13 of the constitution adopted in 1994,[3] 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the same language.[4] In 2013, the Constitutional Court of Moldova interpreted that Article 13 of the constitution is superseded by the Declaration of Independence,[5] thus giving official status to the name Romanian.[6][7] The breakaway region of Transnistria continues to recognize "Moldavian" as one of its official languages, alongside Russian and Ukrainian.[8] Ukraine also continued until recently 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.[9] On 16 November 2023, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Ukrainian government stated that it has initiated steps to abolish the Moldovan language and to replace it with Romanian.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]

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. Its resolution declared Moldavian a Romance language distinct from Romanian.

While a majority of Moldovans with higher education,[13] as well as a majority of inhabitants of the capital city of Chișinău,[14] call their language Romanian, most rural residents indicated Moldovan as their native language in the 2004 census.[14] In schools in Moldova, the term "Romanian language" has been used since independence.[15]

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.[16][17]

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.[18]

History and politics

[edit]
Main article: Moldovenism
1999 Moldovan stamp celebrating 10 years since reverting to the Latin script
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.[19] 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.[20] 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.[21] 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 (Galați and Iași counties).[22]

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 limba de stat — 'the state language'.

Moldovan was assigned the code mo in ISO 639-1 and code mol in ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3.[23] 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 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.[24][25]

In 1989, the contemporary Romanian version of the Latin alphabet was adopted as the official script of the Moldavian SSR.[26]

Since independence

[edit]

The Declaration of Independence[27] 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.[citation needed]

In 1996, the Moldovan president Mircea Snegur attempted to change the official name of the language back to Romanian; the Moldovan Parliament, dominated by the Democratic Agrarian Party and various far left forces, dismissed the proposal as promoting "Romanian expansionism".

In 2003, a Moldovan–Romanian dictionary (Dicționar Moldovenesc–Românesc (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, Ion Bărbuță, 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.[28]

In 2003, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted a law defining Moldovan and Romanian as designations for the same language (glottonyms).[4]

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 Chișinău 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.[29] Currently, 2,184,065 people or 80.2% of those covered by the 2014 census on the right bank of the Dniester or Moldova (proper, without the Transnistrian separatist region) identified Moldovan or Romanian as their native language, of which 1,544,726 (55.1%) declared Moldovan and 639.339 (22.8%) declared it Romanian.[30] According to the 2014 census, 2,720,377 answered to the question on "language usually used for communication". 2,138,964 people or 78.63% of the inhabitants of Moldova (proper, without the Transnistrian separatist region) have Moldovan/Romanian as first language, of which 1,486,570 (53%) declared it Moldovan and 652,394 (23.3%) declared it Romanian.[31]

In the Republic of Moldova, “more than half of the self-proclaimed Moldovans (53.5%) said that they saw no difference” between the Romanian and Moldovan languages according to a survey conducted by Pal Kolsto and Hans Olav Melberg in 1998.[32] Opinion polling from the Chernivtsi oblast indicated that a significant majority of the self-identified Moldovans thought that there was no difference between the Moldovan language and the Romanian language in that part of Ukraine.[33] According to Alla Skvortsova, an ethnic Russian researcher from the Republic of Moldova, "Our survey found that while 94.4 percent of the Romanians living in Moldova consider Moldovan and Romanian to be the same language, only half of the Moldovans (53.2 percent) share this view".[34]

In schools in Moldova, the term Romanian language has been used since independence.[15]

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.[35]

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.[5][6]

By March 2017, the presidential website under Igor Dodon had changed the Romanian language option to Moldovan,[36] 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.[37]

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.[9] On 30 November 2022, during another meeting between Aurescu and Kuleba, Aurescu reiterated this request.[38] 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.[39]

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.[40][41] The Academy of Sciences of Moldova also supported this decision.[42] The bill was approved on its second and final reading on 16 March.[43][44] 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".[45] 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".[46] 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."[47] The president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, promulgated the law on 22 March.[12] It was published on the 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.[48] On 30 March, the changes appeared on the Constitution of Moldova.[49]

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.[50] However, as of June 2023, Ukraine still continues to make Moldovan-language schoolbooks.[51]

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.[52]

Starting from 1 September 2023, the high school in the village of Borysivka (Borisăuca) in Odesa Oblast, where Ukrainian Romanians study, replaced the term "Moldovan language" with "Romanian language" in its curriculum.[53]

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.[54]

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."[55][56] Former Moldovan president Igor Dodon, as well as the Revival Party, have criticised this decision.[57] 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.[58]

On 16 November, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Ukrainian government stated that it has initiated steps to abolish the Moldovan language and to replace it with Romanian.[59] The Ukrainian Ministry of Education stated:

‘The Government of Ukraine adopted a decision regarding the use of the term "Romanian language" instead of the term "Moldovan language" in Ukraine. Currently, work is underway to bring the current legislation of Ukraine in line with this decision, which includes many internal regulatory legal acts. Separately, we note that all further acts of the government will be adopted considering the agreements. And all civil servants who allow violations of the government's decision will be subject to disciplinary action. The facts reported in the media regarding the printed textbooks refer to the copies approved for printing in May this year. The main edition of these textbooks was printed in the summer before the decision was made not to use the term "Moldovan language". Today, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has stopped any additional printing of these textbooks. And also develops a mechanism for replacing previously printed copies with textbooks in the Romanian language.'[60][11]

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.[11] However, Anatol Popescu, president of the Bessarabia National–Cultural Association, reported that in the Romanian school of Utkonosivka [ro; uk] (Erdec-Burnu), 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.[61]

Controversy

[edit]
Main article: Controversy over national identity in Moldova
See also: Moldovenism
Demonstration in Chișinău, January 2002. The text on the inscription is "Romanian people—Romanian language".

The 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,[62] asserts a "linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity".[26] Article 13 of the Moldovan Constitution used to name it "the national language of the country" (the original uses the phrase limba de stat, 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.[5] The law was approved by the parliament on 16 March, and the President of Moldova promulgated the law on 22 March.[12]

In the breakaway region of Transnistria, Moldovan is declared an official language, together with Ukrainian and Russian.[8]

Standard Moldovan is widely considered to be identical to standard Romanian.[63] 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".[64]

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".[65] 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."[66] 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".[67]

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.[29] Independent studies found a Moldovan linguistic identity asserted in particular by the rural population and post-Soviet political class.[68] 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%.[69]

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".[70] The Romanian press speculated that the EU banned the usage of the phrase "Moldovan language".[71] 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.[72]

Orthography

[edit]
See also: Romanian alphabet and Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet
A welcome sign in Moldovan Cyrillic in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria, in 2012. The phrase in Latin alphabet is Bine ați venit!

The 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).[73] 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.[8]

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.[74] In 2000, the Moldovan Academy recommended adopting the spelling rules used in Romania,[75] and in 2010 launched a schedule for the transition to the new rules that was completed in 2011 (regarding its publications).[76] 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.[77] 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

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References

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Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ Kogan Page 2004.
  2. ^ Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission (2008). "A Field Guide to the Main Languages of Europe – Spot That Language and How to Tell Them Apart" (PDF) (3rd ed.). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Constitution of the Republic of Moldova" (PDF). Article 13, line 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2008.
  4. ^ a b "Politics of National Conception of Moldova". Law No. 546/12-19-2003 (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  5. ^ a b c "Hotărâre Nr. 36 din 05.12.2013 privind interpretarea articolului 13 alin. (1) din Constituție în corelație cu Preambulul Constituției și Declarația de Independență a Republicii Moldova (Sesizările nr. 8b/2013 și 41b/2013)" (in Romanian). Constitutional Court of Moldova. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2013. 124. ... Prin urmare, Curtea consideră că prevederea conținută în Declarația de Independență referitoare la limba română ca limbă de stat a Republicii Moldova prevalează asupra prevederii referitoare la limba moldovenească conținute în articolul 13 al Constituției. [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.]
  6. ^ a b "Moldovan court rules official language is 'Romanian', replacing Soviet-flavored 'Moldovan'". Fox News. Associated Press. 5 December 2013. Archived from the original on 9 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  7. ^ "Chisinau Recognizes Romanian As Official Language". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 5 December 2013. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  8. ^ a b c "CONSTITUTION OF THE PRIDNESTROVIAN MOLDAVIAN REPUBLIC". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Transnistria. October 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  9. ^ a b "Ministerul de Externe: Bogdan Aurescu cere Ucrainei să recunoască oficial inexistența 'limbii moldovenești'". Digi24 (in Romanian). 19 June 2021. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  10. ^ See ‘Official statement regarding the use in Ukraine of the term "Romanian language" instead of the term "Moldovan language"’, at https://mon.gov.ua/en/news/declaratie-oficiala-privind-utilizarea-in-ucraina-termenului-limba-romana-in-locul-termenului-limba-moldoveneasca
  11. ^ a b c "Останні молдавські школи Одеської області перейменували рідну мову на румунську: це відкриває низку можливостей для учнів". Dumska (in Ukrainian). 13 January 2024.
  12. ^ a b c "Președinta Maia Sandu a promulgat Legea care confirmă că limba de stat a Republicii Moldova este cea română" (in Romanian). Presidency of the Republic of Moldova. Astăzi am promulgat Legea care confirmă un adevăr istoric și 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.]
  13. ^ "CBS AXA/IPP nov. 2012" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2013.
  14. ^ a b "Population by main nationalities, mother tongue and language usually spoken, 2004" (XLS). National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  15. ^ a b "Ministerul Educatiei a Republicii Moldova : Acte Normative și Publicații : Acte normative și legislative : Domeniul învațămîntului preuniversitar". www.edu.md (in Romanian). 4 October 2004. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  16. ^ * Minahan, James (1989). Miniature Empires: A Historical Dictionary of the Newly Independent States. Greenwood. p. 276.
  17. ^ (in Russian) L. I. Lukht, B. P. Narumov. "Румынский язык" [Romanian language]. Языки мира [Languages of the world]. Романские языки [Romance languages]. М., Academia, Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2001.[clarification needed]
  18. ^ Denis Deletant, Slavonic Letters in Moldova, Wallachia & Transylvania from the Tenth to the Seventeenth Centuries, Ed. Enciclopedicӑ, Bucharest, 1991.
  19. ^ King 2000, pp. 57–59.
  20. ^ King 1999, p. 120.
  21. ^ Fedor, Helen, ed. (1995). Belarus and Moldova: Country Studies. Washington DC: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. pp. 121–122. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2020. 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.
  22. ^ Arvinte, Vasile (1983). Român, românesc, România. București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică. p. 50.
  23. ^ SIL International: ISO 639 code sets: Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: mol Archived 11 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ "Code Changes: ISO 639-2 Registration Authority". US Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 28 April 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2017. 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
  25. ^ "ISO 639 JAC decision re mo/mol". www.alvestrand.no. 3 November 2008. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  26. ^ a b (in Romanian) Legea cu privire la funcționarea limbilor vorbite pe teritoriul RSS Moldovenești 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 mother tongue."
  27. ^ "Declaratia de Independenta a Republicii Moldova" [Moldovan Declaration of Independence] (in Romanian). europa.md. 27 August 1991. Archived from the original on 5 March 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  28. ^ "Linguists condemn "Moldovan language"". Ziare.ro (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
  29. ^ a b "2004 Population Census". National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  30. ^ "Rezultatele Recensământului Populației și al Locuințelor 2014", at https://statistica.gov.md/ro/recensamantul-populatiei-si-al-locuintelor-2014-122.html
  31. ^ "Rezultatele Recensământului Populației și al Locuințelor 2014", at https://statistica.gov.md/ro/recensamantul-populatiei-si-al-locuintelor-2014-122.html
  32. ^ Pal Kolsto with Hans Olav Melberg, “Integration, Alienation, and Conflict in Estonia and Moldova,” in Pal Kolsto (ed.), National Integration and Violent Conflict in Post-Soviet Societies (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.), p. 34. The article discusses the data of the survey. The data also includes Transnistria, the mostly Russian-speaking area of eastern Moldova. See Kolsto, p. 35.
  33. ^ Ion Popescu and Constantin Ungureanu, Romanii dn Ucraina - intre trecut si viitor, vol. 1 (Romanii din Regiunea Cernauti), Cernauti, 2005.
  34. ^ Alla Skvortsova, "The Cultural and Social Makeup of Moldova: A Bipolar or Dispersed Society?", in Pal Kolsto (ed.), National Integration and Violent Conflict in Post-Soviet Societies (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.), p. 168.
  35. ^ "Professors from the University of Balti protest against replacing 'Romanian language' with 'Moldovan language'". DECA-Press. moldova.org. 18 December 2007. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  36. ^ "Președinția Republicii Moldova". presedinte.md. 2 March 2017. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  37. ^ "Președinția Republicii Moldova". presedinte.md. 24 December 2020. Archived from the original on 24 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  38. ^ "FOTO România, solicitare fermă pentru Ucraina: Kievul să nu recunoască 'limba moldovenească'". Știri pe surse (in Romanian). 30 November 2022. Archived from the original on 3 December 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
  39. ^ "Bogdan Aurescu vrea ca Ucraina să renunțe la sintagma "limba moldovenească". Cum au reacționat autoritățile ucrainene" (in Romanian). Publika TV. 13 April 2023.
  40. ^ "Video Îmbrânceli și scandal în Parlamentul de la Chișinău / "Limba moldovenească" dispare din toate legile Republicii Moldova". HotNews.ro (in Romanian). 2 March 2023. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  41. ^ "Decizie cu scântei: "limba moldovenească" va fi înlocuită cu "limba română" în legislație". Europa Liberăb Moldova (in Romanian). 2 March 2023. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  42. ^ "'Ar pune capăt infinitelor discuții inutile'. AȘM susține inițiativa deputaților PAS pentru substituirea în textul legilor R. Moldova a sintagmei 'limba moldovenească' cu sintagma 'limba română'". Ziarul de Gardă (in Romanian). 28 February 2023. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  43. ^ "Moldovan Parliament Approves Final Reading of Romanian Language Bill". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 17 March 2023. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  44. ^ "Sintagma "limba română" va fi introdusă în toate legile Republicii Moldova". Moldpres (in Romanian). 16 March 2023. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  45. ^ "Maria Zaharova, supărată foc: Limba română trebuie redenumită în "limba moldovenească" şi nu viceversa". HotNews.ro (in Romanian). 18 March 2023.
  46. ^ Rubica, Andreea (20 March 2023). "Aurescu: Limba moldovenească nu există. Este o construcție artificială creată de Uniunea Sovietică". adevarul.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  47. ^ "Maria Zaharova îl atacă pe Bogdan Aurescu în scandalul "limbii moldoveneşti": "Nici ministrul român nu a existat niciodată"". Digi24.ro (in Romanian). 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  48. ^ "Legea prin care sintagma "limba moldovenească" a fost înlocuită cu "limba română" în legislația națională, inclusiv în Constituție, a intrat în vigoare". Ziarul National (in Romanian). 24 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  49. ^ "Modificat și în Constituție: "Limba de stat a Republicii Moldova este limba română" - FOTO" (in Romanian). ProTV Chișinău. 30 March 2023.
  50. ^ Gridina, Marina (13 April 2023). "Aurescu asked Kuleba to give up the phrase "Moldovan language" in Ukraine". Moldova. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  51. ^ "Ucraina sfidează comunitatea românească și tipărește manuale de limba și literatura "moldovenească", în ciuda solicitărilor Bucureștiului și Chișinăului". 12 June 2023.
  52. ^ "VIDEO Premierul Ucrainei, la București / Marcel Ciolacu: Am stabilit dublarea tranzitului de cereale prin România / Dorim pentru românii din Ucraina exact aceleași drepturi de care se bucură ucrainenii din România". HotNews (in Romanian). 18 August 2023.
  53. ^ Pop, Radu (27 August 2023). "Ucrainenii încep să admită că Limba moldovenească nu există". Știri pe surse (in Romanian).
  54. ^ "VIDEO Zelenski, despre legea minorităților și limba moldovenească: Această problemă nu e presantă pentru mine. Guvernele vor găsi soluții". Digi24 (in Romanian). 10 October 2023.
  55. ^ "Спільна заява прем'єр-міністрів України та Румунії за результатами першого засідання урядів двох країн". Кабінет Міністрів України (in Ukrainian). 18 October 2023.
  56. ^ "Bucharest Says Kyiv Recognizes Romanian As Official Language of Romanian Minority". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 19 October 2023.
  57. ^ "Dodon și "Renaștere", indignați că Ucraina nu mai recunoaște existența "limbii moldovenești": "Au refuzat identitatea moldovenilor"". 19 October 2023.
  58. ^ Gherman, Marin (16 November 2023). "DOCUMENT OFICIAL. Ce nu au spus guvernele României și Ucrainei: schimbarea "limbii moldovenești" în "limba română" e abia în faza de "se înaintează propuneri"". Libertatea (in Romanian).
  59. ^ See ‘Official statement regarding the use in Ukraine of the term "Romanian language" instead of the term "Moldovan language"’, at https://mon.gov.ua/en/news/declaratie-oficiala-privind-utilizarea-in-ucraina-termenului-limba-romana-in-locul-termenului-limba-moldoveneasca
  60. ^ "Official statement on the use of the "Romanian language" term instead of the "Moldovan language" in Ukraine". www.kmu.gov.ua. Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. 16 November 2023. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  61. ^ "Noi probleme la o școală românească din Ucraina. "Limba moldovenească" a fost înlocuită cu "limba minorității naționale", nu cu româna". Ziarul Național (in Romanian). 30 January 2024.
  62. ^ Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, Title 7, Article 7. Archived 8 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine: "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."
  63. ^ Kogan 2004, p. 291; IHT[clarification needed], 16 June 2000, p. 2; Dyer 1999, 2005.
  64. ^ King 2000.
  65. ^ "Ion Morei: limba moldoveneasca este identica cu cea romana" [Ion Morei: The Moldovan language is identical to the Romanian language]. Moldova Azi. 10 September 2002. Archived from the original on 24 October 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2005.
  66. ^ Lozinschi, Raisa (25 May 2004). "Din nou fără burse". Jurnal de Chișinău (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 11 March 2007.
  67. ^ "Ştiri de ultima ora si ultimele ştiri". Mediafax. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  68. ^ Ciscel 2008, p. 104.
  69. ^ Arambașa 2008, pp. 358, 364.
  70. ^ Marinescu, Marian-Jean (7 November 2007). "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" (DOC). European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  71. ^ Vulpe, Marius (20 October 2007). "Orban a eliminat "limba moldovenească" de pe site-ul Comisiei Europene". Adevarul (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2 December 2007.
  72. ^ Answer given by Mrs Ferrero-Waldner on behalf of the Commission Archived 28 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, 19 December 2007.
  73. ^ Grenoble, Lenore A. (2003). Language Policy in the Soviet Union. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 89–93. ISBN 0-306-48083-2. Archived from the original on 19 March 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  74. ^ "La solicitarea Consiliului Științific al Institutului de Filologie al Academiei de Științe a Moldovei din 24 noiembrie 2009 și în conformitate cu Hotărârea Adunării Generale a Academiei Române din 17 februarie 1993, privind revenirea la â și sunt în grafia limbii române, Consiliul Suprem pentru Știință și 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, sunteți) și la normele ortografice cuprinse în Dicționarul ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române (DOOM, ediția a II-a, București, 2005)." Archived 11 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine Modificări în ortografia limbii române, nr. 1(16), martie 2010
  75. ^ The new edition of Dicționarul ortografic al limbii române (ortoepic, morfologic, cu norme de punctuație) [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. (Introduction, Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova)
  76. ^ "Gheorghe Duca: Trebuie schimbată atitudinea de sorginte proletară față de savanți și în genere față de intelectuali" (in Romanian). Allmoldova. 4 June 2010. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  77. ^ "Normele ortografice ale scrierii lui "â" și "sunt" în grafia limbii române – obligatorii în instituțiile de învățământ" [The orthographic norms of "â" and "sunt" in the Romanian language - mandatory in educational institutions]. Moldovan Ministry of Education, Culture and Research (in Romanian). 18 October 2016. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2018.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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