In early September 2024, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova stated that the inhabitants of Moldova were forced to speak Romanian, although the Moldavian language is older than Romanian. We decided to check if this position is confirmed by scientific data.
Speaking at the International Forum "Leaders of Eurasia" in the suburbs, Zakharov said: “The degree of meanness and baseness that the West is trying to commit with the people of Moldova, in my opinion, is unprecedented. Even what was done with Ukraine is doing with other countries, it seems to me that differs from what is happening in Moldova. There is a real artificial Romanization of Moldova. There were Nazis who said that it was impossible to use this font, newspapers should be published in such a way that the capital letters are like that, or, for example, when they say in Ukraine that the Russian language should be minimized, they changed the education system ... All this is monstrous, beyond the grade of understanding, based on the current West of the created landmarks and reciprocal points. But this is still not what has now happened with the Moldavian language, when people turn on the TV, but they say: "By the way, and now you have not a Moldavian language, but Romanian." This is despite the fact that Moldavian language is older than Romanian. This is historically proven. ”
In his speech, Zakharov refers to changes in the Moldavian legislation that occurred in 2023. Then the parliament of the republic Accepted The law, according to which the name "Moldavian language" should be replaced by the "Romanian language" in the Constitution and regulatory acts. March 22 of the same year, President of the country of Maya Sandu on his Facebook page She said: “Today I signed a law that confirms the historical and undeniable truth: the state language of the Republic of Moldova is Romanian. I hope that the Romanian language will unite us all who live here and love this land. Along with more than 27 million people around the world, we speak Romanian, one of the official languages of the European Union. Those who for decades claimed that we, citizens of the Republic of Moldova, have been speaking in Moldavian, and not in the Romanian language, pursued one goal: to divide us. " Shortly before this, the Constitutional Court of the country, having examined the appeal of several opposition deputies, Recognized The law is relevant to the Constitution.
According to the generally accepted scientific point of view, which is also held by Russian linguists, Romanian and Moldavian - two linguum, that is, two national names of the same language. So, in the encyclopedia "Languages of the world", Published by the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the article on the Romanian language says:" In Moldova, it functions under the name "Moldavian language" a literary language identical to the Romanian language of Romania; Attempts to create a separate literary norm are declared insolvent. <...> In the last decade of the 20th century, in connection with the rejection of the concept of the existence of a special "Moldavian language", different from Romanian, and after the transition to Latin graphics, the name "Romanian language" is increasingly widespread. The article further clarifies that the identity of the Moldavian and Romanian languages was recognized back in 1989 (and not recently, as Zakharova claims).
Western linguists adhere to a similar point of view. So, professor at the University of Oxford Martin Maden calls Romanian and Moldavian dialects of the same language belonging to a group of Dako-Romanian languages.
Before the territory of modern Moldova in the USSR in 1940, the terms "Moldavian language" and "Romanian language" were used as synonyms (this, for example, Fixed In the results of the census of the Russian Empire in 1897). Priest and poet Alexei Mateevich, a native of Bessarabia (belonging to the Russian Empire at that time), in 1917 He said: “We have not two languages and not two literature, but only one, the same as behind the rod” (that is, in Romania). The Constitution of the Moldavian SSR enshrined the official status of two languages: Russian and Moldavian. In August 27, 1991 Declarations on Independence of the Republic of Moldova The state language of the country was proclaimed Romanian, and in Constitution of Moldova 1994 - Moldavian language based on Latin graphics. Both concepts continued to use both in official documents and in everyday life (for example, within the framework of the 2014 population census, 55% of the country's residents They called it Moldavian’s native language, and almost 23% - Romanian). The law adopted and signed by Sandu in 2023 eliminated this confusion.
The statement of the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation that the Moldavian language is older than Romanian, probably dates back to the works of Vasily Stati, the Moldavian politician and historian, the author of the Moldavian-Romanian dictionary. One of his interviews, published in Russian in 2013, is called - “Moldavian language Ancient Romanian". However, this wording does not quite correctly convey the position of the stature declared in a conversation with the journalist. He, like experts, speaks not about languages, but about linguony. “The Romanian language and Moldavian are not different languages, they have two linguum, the names of national languages are the Moldavian national language and the Romanian national language. The Romanian and Moldavian languages have a general literary form, common roots, a common main vocabulary, a general historical path of development. However, the linguistic "Moldavian language" is more ancient than the linguistic "Romanian language", - explains stature. In his opinion, “linguistic is an introductory phenomenon, this is a sociocultural, ethnopsychological phenomenon, one of the fundamental indicators of the ethno -identification of any people”.
The name "Moldavian language" really appeared earlier. For example, this phrase Used Dmitry Kantemir, the Lord of the Moldavian principality at the end of the XVII and the beginning of the 18th century, who later received a princely title from Peter I. Linguistic "Romanian language" was fixed In the middle of the XIX century, after the appearance of the state of Romania as a result of the merger of the Danube principalities. Earlier, the language in which the inhabitants of these territories spoke Moldavian or Valash.
The Moldavian Scientific Community refers to the argumentation of statue critically. In February 2023, the Academy of Sciences of Moldova spoke With a statement, in which she supported the initiative to replace the phrase “Moldavian language” with “Romanian language” in the text of the Constitution and other laws. “The restoration of the correct name of our language in the legislation would put an end to the endless and useless disputes that have been conducted around this problem for several decades,” the statement said. - With its decrees of 1994 and 1996, the Presidium and the General Assembly of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, in the framework of national and international scientific conferences, as well as in an interview that the members of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and its leadership gave, for various cases, our institution has repeatedly advocated the restoration of this scientific truth about the Romanian language. ”
Thus, the statement of Zakharova cannot be called correct. The inhabitants of Moldova are not forced to speak Romanian, they spoke and continue to speak their native language, because Romanian and Moldavian are two different names of the same language. The fact that the name "Romanian language" appeared later the name "Moldavian language" does not give reason to speak of two languages, one of which is older than the other.
Photo on the cover: UNSPLASH
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