Origins

The arguable issue of whether the Moldovan language exists is a modern issue, and as for its origins the language is easily defined. It belongs to the family of Romance languages, in its eastern branch. Romanian/Moldovan suffered the influence mainly of Slavic languages, varying for that reason from the western Romance languages. It was also influenced in its orthography when the Cyrillic alphabet was imposed by Russian authorities in the second half of the 20th Century.

Official Language

Moldovan is the official language of the Republic of Moldova. In fact, the issue of formally being official is also disputable. The Constitution of Moldova defines it as such, while the declaration for independence sets the official language of the state as Romanian. In a survey held in 2004, it is clearly observed that 40% of the Moldovan people say they speak Moldovan, and about 60 percent opt for Romanian.

Varieties

Moldovan isn’t thought to have many distinct varieties, as it has itself been considered a major variety of Romanian. In fact, it’s one of five major varieties of Romanian. Moldovan is spoken by almost as many people in Moldova as in the border areas of Romania.

Moldovan differs from Romanian mainly phonetically, somewhat lexically, and there are some negligible orthography variations. For instance, Moldavians often use î  when Romanians use â, though both forms co-existed in Romania until 1990.

Brief History

The History of Moldovan is inseparable from the history of Romanian. Both languages derived from the Romance family. Romanian is a unique phenomenon in the Romance family, due mainly to its geographical situation and the major influence of Slavic languages that led to.

Some explain that the tribes living on the territory of today’s Romania were the only ones on the Balkans and neighboring areas to adopt Latin for their mother tongue (when the Roman Empire ruled over that territory).

As for Moldovan, it’s still an issue of national identity to confirm its existence as a separate language. Striving to find their authentic identity apart from Russia after the split of the Soviet Union, Moldavians quickly restored the major use of the Latin alphabet and aimed to eliminate all Slavic influence Russian had forcedly brought to their language. The official language of the state is called today Romanian, not only by 60 percent of the population but also by the National Academy of Sciences.

Did you know?

Moldavian is arguably considered a separate language. It’s largely known as one of the five most considerable dialects of Romanian. Moldavian is closer to French, Spanish and Italian than to Russian and other neighboring languages, due to the origins of Romania.

In some parts of Moldova, Cyrillic is still used in some cases – a remaining effect of the USSR period.