History of the Moldovan language

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The history of the Moldovan language refers to the history of the Romanian language in the historical and political regions of Moldova and Transnistria, where it is officially called Moldovan.

[edit] Before 1812

The Moldovan prince Laţcu (ca. 1365-1373), son of the very first ruler of Moldova, was recognized as duke of Moldova by the Holy See, and the recognition letters stated that Moldova was a part of the Vlach (Romanian) nation: dux Moldavie partium seu nationis Wlachie.

The Polish chronicler, Jan Długosz, remarked as early as 1476 that Moldavians and Wallachians "share a language and customs"^[1]. References to a "Moldavian language" can be found in works as early as Grigore Ureche's The Chronicles of the land of Moldavia (1640s), where it is noted that this language is shared by Moldovans, Wallachians, and Transylvanian Vlachs.

Miron Costin, in his De neamul moldovenilor (1687) writes of a Romanian nation that lives in Moldavia, Muntenia, Ardeal and the Hungarian Country, and says that although people of Moldavia call themselves "Moldavians", they name their language "Romanian" (româneşte) instead of Moldavian (moldoveneşte). Also Miron Costin, in his Polish language Chronicle of Wallachia and Moldavia says that the Muntenians, just like Moldavians call themselves "Rumanians", which is equivalent to "Romans".

The Moldavian scientist Dimitrie Cantemir wrote in his Descriptio Moldaviae (Berlin 1714) that the Moldavians spoke the same language as Wallachians and Transylvanians, but he explained that the Wallachians pronounce the words in a harsher way. Cantemir also wrote one of the earliest histories of the Romanian language, noting the evolution of Romanian words from Latin, noticing the Greek borrowings and introducing the idea that some Romanian words had Dacian roots.

[edit] Russification of the language in imperial Russian Bessarabia

In the first years of Russian occupation (after 1812), as 95% of the population were Romanians, Romanian was admitted as an official language in the institutions of Bessarabia, used along with Russian.

Gradually, the Russian language gained importance. According to the dates offered by the department ruling Bessarabia, from 1828 the bureau papers were published in Russian only, and in around 1835, it established a 7-year term when the state institutions would accept acts in the Romanian language.^[2]

Romanian was accepted as the language of instruction only until 1842, afterwards being taught as a separate subject. Thus, at the seminary of Chişinău, the Romanian language was found on the list of compulsory subjects, with 10 hours weekly, until 1863, when the Department of Romanian was closed. At High School No.1 in Chişinău, students had the right to choose among Romanian, German, and Greek until 9 February 1866, when the State Counselor of the Russian Empire forbade teaching of the Romanian language, giving the justification: "the pupils know this language in the practical mode, and its teaching follows other goals".^[2]

Around 1871, the tsar published an ukase "On the suspension of teaching the Romanian language in the schools from Bessarabia," because "in the Russian Empire local speeches are not taught".^[2]

[edit] Declining status of the Moldovan language during the Russian Empire

The linguistic situation in Bessarabia from 1812 to 1918 was the gradual development of bilingualism. Russian continued to develop as the official language of privilege, whereas Romanian remained the principal vernacular. The evolution of this linguistic situation, and the development of Moldovan, can be divided into five phases. ^[3]

[edit] Phase one: 1812 to 1828

The period from 1812 to 1828 was one of neutral or functional bilingualism. Whereas Russian had official dominance, Romanian was not without influence, especially in the spheres of public administration, education (particularly religious education) and culture. In the years immediately following the annexation, loyalty to Romanian language and customs became important. The Theological Seminary (Seminarul Teologic) and Lancaster Schools were opened in 1813 and 1824 respectively, Romanian grammar books were published, and the printing press at Chişinău began producing religious books. ^[3]

[edit] Phase two: 1828 to 1843

The period from 1828 to 1843 was one of partial diglossic bilingualism. During this time, use of Romanian was forbidden in the sphere of administration. This was carried out through negative means: Romanian was excluded from the civil code. Romanian continued to be used in education, but only as a separate subject. Bilingual manuals, such as the Russian-Romanian Bucoavne grammar of Iacob Ghinculov, were published to meet the new need for bilingualism. Religious books and Sunday sermons remained the only monolingual public outlet for Romanian. By 1843, the removal of Romanian from public administration was complete. ^[3]

[edit] Phase three: 1843 to 1871

The period from 1843 to 1871 was one of assimilation. Romanian continued to be a school subject until 1866 at the Liceul Regional (high school), until 1867 at the Seminarul Teologic (Theological Seminary), and until 1871 at regional schools, when all teaching of the language was forbidden by law. ^[3]

[edit] Phase four: 1871 to 1905

The period from 1871 to 1905 was one of official monolingualism in Russian. All public use of Romanian was phased out, and substituted with Russian. Romanian continued to be used as the colloquial language of home and family. This was the era of the highest level of assimilation in the Russian Empire. In 1872, the priest Pavel Lebedev ordered that all church documents be written in Russian, and, in 1882, the press at Chişinău was closed by order of the holy synod. ^[3]

[edit] Phase five: 1905 to 1917

The period from 1905 to 1917 was one of increasing linguistic conflict, with the re-awakening of Romanian national consciousness. In 1905 and 1906, the Bessarabian zemstvels asked for the re-introduction of Romanian in schools as a "compulsory language", and the "liberty to teach in the mother language (Romanian language)". At the same time, the first Romanian language newspapers and journals began to appear: Basarabia (1906), Viaţa Basarabiei (1907), Moldovanul (1907), Luminătorul (1908), Cuvînt moldovenesc (1913), Glasul Basarabiei (1913). From 1913, the synod permitted that "the churches in Besserabia use the Romanian language". ^[3]

The term "Moldovan language" (limbă moldovenească) was newly employed to create a state-sponsored Ausbausprache to distinguish it from 'Romanian' Romanian. Thus, Şt. Margeală, in 1827, stated that the aim of his book was to "offer the 800,000 Romanians who live in Bessarabia,... as well as to the millions of Romanians from the other part of Prut, the possibility of knowing the Russian language, and also for the Russians who want to study the Romanian language". In 1865 Ioan Doncev, editing his Romanian primer and grammar, affirmed that Moldovan is valaho-româno, or Romanian. However, after this date, the label "Romanian language" appears only sporadically in the correspondence of the educational authorities. Gradually, Moldovan became the sole label for the language: a situation that proved useful to those who wished for a cultural separation of Bessarabia from Romania. Although referring to another historical period, Kl. Heitmann stated that the "theory of two languages — Romanian and Moldovan — was served both in Moscow as well as in Chişinău to combat the nationalistic veleities of the Republic of Moldova, being, in fact, an action against Romanian nationalism". (Heitmann, 1965). The objective of the Russian language policies in Bessarabia was the dialectization of the Romanian language. A. Arţimovici, official of the Education Department based in Odessa, wrote a letter, dated 11 February 1863, to the Minister of Public Instructions stating: "I have the opinion that it will be hard to stop the Romanian population of Bessarabia using the language of the neighbouring principalities, where the concentrated Romanian population may develop the language based on its Latin elements, not good for Slavic language. The government's directions pertaining to this case aim to make a new dialect in Bessarabia, more closely based on Slavic language, will be, as it will be seen, of no use: we cannot direct the teachers to teach a language that will soon be dead in Moldova and Wallachia... parents will not want their children to learn a different language to the one they currently speak". Although some clerks, like Arţimovici, realised that the creation of a dialect apart from the Romanian spoken in the United Principalities could never be truly effective, most of them "with the aim of fulfilling governmental policy, tendentiously called the majority language Moldovan, even in the context where Romanian had always been used previously". ^[3]

[edit] Beginnings of the Moldovan language

A 1920 historical map of Romania (which includes most of today's Republic of Moldova) and the Moldavian ASSR (1924-1940), which includes most of today's Transnistria

The territory of Bessarabia which forms most of the present-day Republic of Moldova, historically the eastern part of the principality of Moldavia, was annexed from the Ottoman Empire by Imperial Russia in 1812 and remained a Russian territory until the October Revolution of 1917. In 1918, Bessarabia was united with Romania.

With the creation in 1924 of the Moldavian ASSR within the Ukrainian SSR, the Soviet authorities declared the variety spoken by the majority of Moldavians to be "Moldavian language", allegedly for the purpose of giving the region its own identity separate from Romania. ^[4] The Latin alphabet which had been used for writing the language for the past 80 years was changed to a version of the Cyrillic alphabet derived from the Russian variant. To justify this, the government noted that up until just 80 years prior, the language was usually written in Cyrillic. (See: Moldovan alphabet)

As a result of the transfers of the territory and the accompanying emigration of the population, including deportations of the ethnic Romanians and encouraged immigration from the rest of the USSR, by the mid-20th century, Bessarabia acquired large communities of Russian speakers among the Moldovan natives. Also, during Soviet rule, Moldovan speakers were encouraged to learn the Russian language as a prerequisite for access to higher education, social status and political power. All this contributed to proliferation of Russian loanwords in spoken Moldovan.

[edit] Romanizators and Originalists

At these times there were discussions between the supporters ("Romanizators" or "Romanists") and opponents ("Originalists") of the convergence of Moldavian and Romanian languages.

In particular, Originalists strove to base the literary Moldavian language on local dialects. Neologisms were created to cover technical areas that had no native Moldavian equivalent. As a result, textbooks, e.g., in botany or physics were barely readable to the uninitiated.

In February 1932, Moldovan communists received a directive from the Communist Party of Ukraine to switch Moldovan writing to the Latin alphabet. This was part of the massive campaign in the USSR of latinization of the alphabets of lesser nationalities, based on the theory of Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr postulating the convergence to a single world language, expected to be a means of communication in the future classless society (communism). This directive was passively sabotaged by the "originalist" majority, until Stanislav Kosior (General Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party) and some Moldovan communists visited Stalin — who reportedly insisted on faster latinization with the ultimate goal of the convergence of Moldavian and Romanian cultures, hinting at the possibility that in future, Moldova and Romania would be reunited. Nevertheless, resistance to Romanization persisted, and after 1933, a number of prominent "originalists" were repressed, their books destroyed, and their neologisms banned.

After the infamous February-March (1937) VKP(b) Central Committee Plenum, which escalated the Great Purge, both Romanizators and Originalists were declared "imperialist spies": Originalists, because they sabotaged the Latinization, and Romanizators, because they were "agents of boyar Romania" ("Боярская Румыния").

In February 1938, the Moldavian communists issued a declaration transferring Moldavian writing to the Cyrillic alphabet once again, which in August 1939 was made into the law of the republic. The motivation was that the Latinization was used by "bourgeois-nationalist elements" to "distantance the Moldavian populace from the Ukrainian and Russian ones, with the ultimate goal of the separation of Soviet Moldavia from the USSR".

[edit] Moldovan in Soviet Moldova

In June 1940, twenty-two years after the union with Romania, the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia. A year later, in 1941, Romania invaded the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa and retook Bessarabia, along with the territory between the Dniester and Bug rivers. These territories were taken back by the Soviet Union 3 years later in 1944, and remained under Soviet administration until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In 1956, during the rehabilitation of the victims of Stalinist repression, a special report was issued about the state of the Moldavian language, which stated, in part, that the discussions of 1920-30s between the two tendencies were mostly non-scientific, since in the republic there were very few linguists, and that the grammar and the basic lexicon of literary Romanian and Moldovan languages are identical, while differences are secondary and nonessential. Once again, the planned convergence of the Romanian and Moldovan languages was approved, bearing in mind the political situation in the People's Republic of Romania.

In the 1970s a new generation of Soviet linguists argued about Moldovan being a different language. For example, one linguist, Iliasenco compared the Romanian and Moldovan translations of a Brezhnev speech from Russian and used them as a proof for being two difference languages. Linguist Michael Bruchis look at this claim and noticed that all the words of both translations are found in both dictionaries. Also, Iliasenco implied "Moldovan" preferred synthetic while "Romanian" preferred analytic syntagms. However, this claim was also proven wrong, as a book of Nicolae Ceauşescu (the president of Romania) uses mostly "Moldovan" synthetic syntagms, while a book by Ivan Bodyul (the secretary of the Moldavian SSR) uses mostly "Romanian" analytic syntagms. Bruchis' conclusion was that both translations were within the limits of Romanian language.^[5]

[edit] Reversion to Latin script, and beyond

In 1989, the contemporary Romanian version of the Latin alphabet was made the official script of the Moldavian SSR.

After the independence of Moldova in 1991, "Romanian" was declared the official language, but the 1994 constitution changed the name of the language to "Moldovan".

When in 1992 the Romanian Academy changed the official orthography of Romania, the Institute of Linguistics at the ASM did not make the same changes, and the official orthography continued as before (for more detail, see below).

A 1996 attempt by Moldovan president Mircea Snegur to change the official language to "Romanian" was dismissed by the Moldovan Parliament as promoting Romanian expansionism.

In 2002, the government of Moldova attempted to make the Russian language co-official, along with Moldovan, as Russian was the mother tongue of a significant proportion of the population. It was declared to be a mandatory foreign language in schools. This created a wave of indignation among the Moldovan-speaking majority of the population, and rallies against this decision were organized in Chişinău and other major cities, which contributed to the failure of the motion. They were largely attended by students and youths^{[citation needed]}. Just as the population of Russian speakers in the Baltic States has been declining over the past 15 years, so has that of Moldova.

In 2003, a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary (Dicţionar Moldovenesc-Românesc (2003), Vasile Stati) was published. The 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 neologism resulting from Russification. In Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Bărbuţă, described the dictionary as "an absurdity, serving political purposes". Stati, however, accused both of promoting "Romanian colonialism".

In the 2004 census, out of the 3,383,332 people living in Moldova, 16.5% (558,508) chose Romanian as their mother tongue, whereas 60% chose Moldovan. While 40% of all urban Romanian/Moldovan speakers chose Romanian as their mother tongue, in the country side hardly each 7th Romanian/Moldovan speaker indicated Romanian as his mother tongue.^[6]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Grenoble, Lenore A (2003) Language Policy in the Soviet Union, Springer, ISBN 1-4020-1298-5
• Grigore Ureche. Letopiseţul ţărâi Moldovei, de când s-au descălecat ţara (1642-1647)
• Miron Costin. De neamul moldovenilor (1687)
• Dimitrie Cantemir. Descriptio Moldaviae (1714)
• M. Bărbulescu, D. Deletant, K. Hitchins, S. Papacostea, P. Teodor - Istoria României. Ed. Corint, 2004, ISBN 973-653-514-2