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| |} 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. "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 and code mol in ISO 639-2 and ISO/DIS 639-3 .History and politics See main article: History Of The Moldovan Language The 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. Controversy The matter of whether or not Moldovan is a separate language is a contested political issue within and beyond the Republic of Moldova. The of Transnistria , it is co-official with Ukrainian and Russian . Despite the official nomenclature, Standard Moldovan is widely considered to be identical to standard RomanianKogan Page 2004, p 291 ; IHT, 16 June 2000, p. 2 ; Dyer 1999 , 2005 (although one Moldovan linguist, Vasile Stati , disputes thisStati 2003). Writing about "essential differences", Stati is obliged to concentrate almost exclusively on vocabulary rather than linguistic 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 lingustic 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. Orthography 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 , 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 Notes References
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