| Languages of Moldova | |
|---|---|
| Official | Romanian |
| Minority | Russian,Gagauz,Bulgarian, |
| Foreign | English |
| Signed | Romanian Sign Language |
| Keyboard layout | |
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Romanian is the official language of theRepublic of Moldova. The 1991Declaration of Independence named the official language Romanian,[1][2] and theConstitution of Moldova as originally adopted in 1994 named the state language of the countryMoldovan. In December 2013, a decision of theConstitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the Declaration of Independence took precedence over the Constitution and the state language should be called Romanian.[3] In 2023, the Moldovan parliament passed a law officially adopting the designation "Romanian" in all legal instruments, implementing the 2013 court decision.[4]
Scholars agree that Moldovan and Romanian are the same language, with theglottonym "Moldovan" used in certain political contexts.[5] It has been the sole official language since the adoption of the Law on State Language of theMoldavian SSR in 1989.[6] This law mandates the use of Moldovan in all the political, economic, cultural and social spheres, as well as asserting the existence of a "linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity".[7] It is also used in schools, mass media, education and in the colloquial speech and writing. Outside the political arena the language is most often called "Romanian". In the breakaway territory of Transnistria, it is co-official withUkrainian and Russian.
In the2014 census, out of the 2,804,801 people living in Moldova, 24% (652,394) stated Romanian as their most common language, whereas 56% stated Moldovan. While in the urban centers speakers are split evenly between the two names (with the capitalChișinău showing a strong preference for the name "Romanian", i.e. 3:2), in the countryside hardly a quarter of Romanian/Moldovan speakers indicated Romanian as their native language.[8]
| Mother tongues in census history[9][10] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 2014 | 2024 | |
| Moldovan | 60.0 | 56.9 | 49.2 |
| Romanian | 16.5 | 23.2 | 31.3 |
| Russian | 5.9 | 9.9 | 11.1 |
| Gagauz | 4.4 | 4.0 | 3.8 |
| Ukrainian | 8.3 | 4.0 | 2.9 |
| Bulgarian | 1.9 | 1.5 | 1.2 |
| Romani / Gypsy | 2.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Other languages | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Note: The table excludes the population who did not declare a mother tongue and the population inTransnistria. | |||
The 1989 state language law of the formerMoldavian Soviet Socialist Republic declared thatMoldovan, written in theLatin script, was the sole state language, intending it to serve as a primary means of communication among all citizens of the republic. The law speaks of a common Moldovan-Romanian linguistic identity. Until 1989 Moldova used theCyrillic alphabet for writing a language that was, by that time, no different from standard Bucharest Romanian; in part of Moldova, the independentPridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, the old script is still used in schools and on street signs. Even after shifting to the Latin alphabet, some Moldovan officials continue to insist that the designated "state language" is an east-Romance idiom somehow separate from Romanian.[11]
In 1991, theDeclaration of Independence of Moldova named the official language asRomanian.[12]
At 9 September 1994,Academy of Sciences of Moldova confirms the reasoned scientific opinion of philologists from the Republic and abroad (approved by the decision of the Presidium of Academy of Science of Moldova of 9.09.94), according to which the correct name of the State language (official) of the Republic of Moldova is Romanian.[13]
The1994 Constitution of Moldova said that "the national language of the Republic of Moldova is Moldovan, and its writing is based on theLatin alphabet."[14]
In December 2013, theConstitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the Declaration of Independence takes precedence over the Constitution, and the state language should be called "Romanian".[15][16][17][18]
Most linguists consider literary Romanian and Moldovan to be identical, with theglottonym "Moldovan" used in certain political contexts.[19] In 2003, the Communist government of Moldova adopted a political resolution on "National Political Conception," stating that one of its priorities was preservation of the Moldovan language. This was a continuation of Soviet-inflected political emphasis.
Since the Declaration of Independence in 1991, schools refer to this language as "Romanian" when teaching it or referring to it.[20][page needed]
In the2004 census, 2,564,542 people (75.8% of the population of the country) declared their native language as "Moldovan" or "Romanian"; 2,495,977 (73.8%) speak it as first language in daily use. Apart from being the first language of use for 94.5% of ethnicMoldovans and 97.6% of ethnicRomanians, the language is also spoken as primary by 5.8% of ethnicRussians, 7.7% of ethnicUkrainians, 2.3% of ethnicGagauz, 8.7% of ethnicBulgarians, and 14.4% of other ethnic minorities.
The2014 census reported an estimated 2,998,235 people (withoutTransnistria), out of which 2,804,801 were actually covered by the census. Among them, 2,068,068 or 73.7% declared themselves Moldovans and 192,800 or 6.9%Romanians.[24] Some organisations like theLiberal party of Moldova have criticised the census results, claimingRomanians comprise 85% of the population and that census officials have pressured respondents to declare themselves Moldovans instead ofRomanians and have purposefully failed to cover urban respondents who are more likely to declared themselvesRomanians as opposed to Moldovans[25]
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) have Moldovan/Romanian as first language, of which 1,486,570 (53%) declared it Moldovan and 652,394 (23.3%) declared it Romanian.[26]
Of the total population that declared its mother tongue (limba maternă; distinct from the usually spoken language) in the2024 Moldovan census, 49.2% declared "Moldovan" and 31.3% declaredRomanian, with both adding up to 80.5%. The share of the population that declared Romanian as its mother tongue increased by 8.1% compared to the 2014 census (23.2%), and the share that declared "Moldovan" decreased by 7.8% (56.9% in the 2014 census). Among other languages declared as mother tongues,Russian stood out with 11.1% of the population, followed byGagauz with 3.8%,Ukrainian with 2.9%,Bulgarian with 1.2%,Romani/Gypsy with 0.3% and other languages with 0.2%.[27]
In contrast, regarding the usually spoken language (limbă vorbită de obicei; distinct from the mother tongue) in2024 Moldovan census, 46.0% declared it to be "Moldovan" and 33.2% declared it to be Romanian, with both adding up to 79.2%. The two had together an increase of 0.5% compared to the 2014 census, and there was a significant increase in the share of self-declared speakers of Romanian as their usually spoken language, of 9.5%, as well as a decrease in the share of the self-declared speakers of "Moldovan" as their usually spoken language, of 9%, compared to the 2014 census. In the 2024 census, the percentage of speakers of Russian as their usually spoken language was 15.3%, a 0.7% increase since 2014, with other minority languages' share being lower: 2.3% for Gagauz, 2% for Ukrainian, 0.8% for Bulgarian, 0.3% for Romani and 0.2% for other languages. Compared to 2014, there was a decrease in the share of Ukrainian, Gagauz and Bulgarian of 0.8%, 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.[27]
However, inChișinău, the proportion of people who declared Romanian as opposed to Moldovan was larger - 43.3% vs 33% in 2014.[28] According to the2024 Moldovan census, in the capitalChișinău, the proportion was 28.8% for "Moldovan" and 47.9% for Romanian (adding up to 76.7%), 19.5% for Russian, 2.2% for Ukrainian, 0.4% for Gagauz, 0.4% for Bulgarian, 0.1% for Romani/Gypsy and 0.6% for other languages.[29] Regarding the usually spoken language, in the same year, in Chișinău, the proportion was 26.1% for "Moldovan" and 49.1% for Romanian (adding up to 75.2%), 23.2% for Russian, 0.9% for Ukrainian, 0.1% for Gagauz and Bulgarian, 0% for Romani/Gypsy and 0.4% for other languages.[30]
On March 2, 2023, the Moldovan parliament voted in the first reading to replace the phrase "Moldovan language" with "Romanian language" in all legislation of the country. The proposed law was introduced by a group of members of the "Action and Solidarity Party" fraction. Additionally, phrases such as "official language," "state language," and "mother tongue" will also be replaced. The authors of the proposal argue that this change is necessary to implement the constitutional considerations outlined in the decisions of the Constitutional Court, which declared that the state language of the Republic of Moldova is Romanian. The bill also proposes that the National Holiday "Our Language," as it is currently referred to, be renamed "Romanian Language." The proposal passed its first reading with 56 votes in favor.[31]
The 2024 census showed that 11.1% of the population have Russian as a mother tongue. It is one of the minority languages recognized in Moldova,[32] and since Soviet times remains widely used on many levels of the society and the state. A policy document adopted in 2003 by the Moldovan parliament considers that "for Moldova, Moldovan-Russian bilingualism is characteristic".[33] On 21 January 2021 theConstitutional Court declared a law passed by parliament that would have made Russian the "language for communication between ethnic communities" unconstitutional.[34]
Limba rusă care, în conformitate cu legislația în vigoare, are statutul de limbă de comunicare interetnică se aplică și ea în diverse domenii ale vieții statului și societății. Pentru Moldova este characteristic bilingvismul româno-rus. În actualele condiţii, este necesar să se creeze posibilități reale pentru ca bilingvismul ruso-românesc să devină realitate.[TRANS] The Russian language which, according to the legislation in force, has the status of a language of inter-ethnic communication, applies also in various spheres of life of the state and society. Romanian-Russian bilingualism is characteristic for Moldova. Under the current conditions, it is necessary to create real possibilities for Russian-Romanian bilingualism to become reality.
