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A Separate Moldovan Language? The Sociolinguistics of Moldova's Limba de Stat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Matthew H. Ciscel
Matthew H. Ciscel*
Affiliation:
Department of English, Central Connecticut State University, U.S.A. ciscelm@ccsu.edu
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Extract

The politics of language identity have figured heavily in the history of the people of the Republic of Moldova. Indeed the region's status as a province of Russia, Romania, and then the Soviet Union over the past 200 years has consistently been justified and, at least partially, manipulated on the basis of language issues. At the center of these struggles over language and power has been the linguistic and cultural identity of the region's autochthonous ethnicity and current demographic majority, the Moldovans. In dispute is the degree to which these Moldovans are culturally, historically, and linguistically related to the other Moldovans and Romanians across the Prut River in Romania. Under imperial Russia from 1812 to 1918 and Soviet Russia from 1944 to 1991, a proto-Moldovan identity that eschewed connections to Romania and emphasized contact with Slavic peoples was promoted in the region. Meanwhile, experts from Romania and the West have regularly argued that the eastern Moldovans are indistinguishable, historically, culturally, and linguistically, from their Romanian cousins.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 34 , Issue 5 , November 2006 , pp. 575 - 597
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

1. Irina Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, Nation Building, and Ethnic Struggle, 1918–1930 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), p. 98.Google Scholar

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18. This policy mirrors policies that were actually enforced in the Baltic states throughout the 1990s.Google Scholar

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31. The author learned of many of the developments detailed in this section of the article through personal communications with friends and colleagues in Moldova and through the online digest of Moldovan news sources: Moldova Azi, <http://www.azi.md/> (accessed regularly for this article 3 February 2004 through 28 January 2005).+(accessed+regularly+for+this+article+3+February+2004+through+28+January+2005).>Google Scholar

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36. “Elevii liceului romanesc din Ribnita si ai scolii romanesti din Tiraspol nu pot incepe noul an scolar,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 1 September 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30638/Ro> (accessed 2 September 2004).+(accessed+2+September+2004).>Google Scholar

37. “Over 1,000 Students from Romanian-Language Schools in Transnistria Still Unable to Attend Classes,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 14 September 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30832/En> (accessed 14 September 2004).+(accessed+14+September+2004).>Google Scholar

38. “Romanian-Language Lycees in Tighina Back to Normal, Schools in Ribnita and Tiraspol Still Face Persecutions,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 21 September 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30936/En> (accessed 21 September 2004).+(accessed+21+September+2004).>Google Scholar

39. Seminal works in this subfield include Joshua Fishman, Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1972), R. B. LePage and Andree Tabouret-Keller, Acts of Identity: Creole-Based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), and John Edwards, Language, Society and Identity (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985).Google Scholar

40. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991 [1983]).Google Scholar

41. More complete treatment of these data will be forthcoming in other publications by the author. Discussion is necessarily limited by space here.Google Scholar

42. Initially developed by Lambert, Hodgson, Gardner and Fillenbaum, “Evaluative Reactions to Spoken Language,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. 60, 1960, pp. 44–51; but later modified in many ways and often criticized, particularly for relying on an overly simplistic and static notion of attitudes.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43. King, The Moldovans, pp. 112–114.Google Scholar

44. Indeed, the results of the 2004 national census (www.statistica.md) indicate that the vast majority of Moldovans still identify their language as Moldovan, rather than Romanian. It should be noted, however, that census results on language issues are notoriously unreliable, often being skewed by indelicate survey items and politically influenced responses.Google Scholar

45. “Comitetul Helsinki afirma ca aproximativ 50 de scoli din Transnistria doresc sa studieze in limba romana,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 2 November 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/31550/Ro> (accessed 20 January 2005).+(accessed+20+January+2005).>Google Scholar