The Moldovan language ("Limba moldovenească," ISO 639 codes: mol, mo; Ethnologue code: none), the official language of Moldova, is generally considered to be identical to the Romanian language, separated by the government to fight "Romanian expansionism". It is spoken by about 3.5 million in Moldova, of which for about 3 million it is the mother tongue. ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... An official language is something that is given a unique status in the countries, states, and other territories. ... The Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the east. ... Romanian (limba română ) is an Eastern Romance language, spoken by about 28 million people, most of them in Romania, Moldova (where it is the official language) and nearby countries. ... First language (native language, mother tongue, or vernacular) is the language a person learns first. ...

Until 1940, when Moldova was a part of Romania, there was no language called Moldovan: the language spoken in this region was Romanian, but after the USSR occupied this territory, the language was renamed in the attempt to sever all ties with Romania and to justify the occupation. Even the Latin alphabet was changed to a version of the Cyrillic alphabet derived from the Russian variant. Also, during Soviet rule, Romanian speakers were encouraged to switch to the Russian language, this being a prerequisite for higher education, social status and political power. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) .( Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик (СССР)  listen?; tr. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, and of those areas settled by Europeans. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages ( Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Russian (русский язык  listen?) is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. ...

In 1989 Moldovan was declared the official language of Moldova, and the Romanian version of the Latin alphabet was restored as the official script. An official script is a script that is specifically designated to be official in the constitutions or other applicable laws of countries, states, and other territories. ...

After the independence of Moldova in 1991, the constitution that followed acknowledged Moldovan as the official language. A 1996 attempt by the Moldovan president Mircea Snegur to change the name of the language to Romanian was dismissed by the Moldovan Parliament. The Republic of Moldova is a landlocked country in eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the east. ... Mircea Snegur (b. ...

In 2002 the government of Moldova tried to give the Russian language the same privileges as Moldovan, and it was declared to be a mandatory foreign language in schools. This created a wave of indignation among the Romanian-speaking majority of the population, and rallies against this decision were organized in Chişinău and other major cities. . Chişinău (Russian Кишинёв, Kishinyov, also Kishinev; Moldovan Cyrillic Кишинэу), estimated population 920,000 (2002), is the capital of Moldova. ...

In 2003 a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary (authored by Vasile Stati) was published, suggesting that the two countries speak different languages, although the linguists of the Romanian Academy declared that all the Moldovan words are also Romanian words. Even in Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Bărbuţă, described the dictionary as an "absurdity", serving political purposes. The Romanian Academy (Romanian: Academia Română) is a cultural forum founded in Romania in 1866. ... Academy of Sciences of Moldova is the main scientific center of the country, which coordinates research in all areas of science. ...

On the 2004 census about two thirds of the Romanian-Moldovans declared their mother tongue to be "Romanian", and one third "Moldovan", which is according to the press why the release of the official census results was delayed.

Alphabet

The following chart shows the Soviet-era Cyrillic alphabet compared with the Romanian alphabet currently in use. Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

This article is about the alphabet officially used in linguistics. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... This image is the site logo used on the English Wikipedia, the Wiki. ... Wikipedia is a Web-based, free-content encyclopedia, which is written collaboratively by volunteers. ...

External link

• Moldovan alphabet and pronunciation (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/moldovan.htm)