„The Language makes a man a man”. Info-Prim Neo interview with Irina Condrea, head of Romanian Language, General and Romanic Linguistics, USM

[ - Does August 31 still mean a holiday that symbolizes victory in the fight for language and identity?] - August 31 maintains its significance. For many it became a spiritual holiday and even a professional one for us, philologers. The festivities depend on public authorities. It’s good that August 31 is celebrated officially. It must be marked just like a religious holiday and everyone should now what it means. A few years ago we weren’t allowed to say “Romanian language”, but now things have changed. [ - Do you think Romanian language needs to be introduced in the Constitution?] - Yes, Romanian language will be safer if it is mentioned in the Constitution. This is the most important Law and it must say the truth. Many will change their attitudes, but not dramatically. These things don’t happen overnight, time is needed for people’s conscience and culture to change. [ - The “Romanian language” term is still avoided. What needs to be done so that our language is called properly?] - People’s level of culture must increase. When a man receives proper education in school, he knows what Romanian language means, especially if he speaks it in daily life and he does it correctly. Better education is required to solve this issue. Politicians are cunning and use euphemisms - „our language”, „state language”, „people’s language”, „national language”, anything but “Romanian”. However, no matter how sly they are, they do realize its correct name is Romanian. [ - In Moldova, speaking Romanian is being encouraged or hindered? Not only in the case of foreign language speakers .] - Foreign language speakers are encouraged to speak Romanian. Nonetheless, nothing is done to maintain Romanian speakers’ interest in their own language, as many people remain with a kindergarten level of linguistic knowledge. Any language, including the native one, must be practiced and improved, which is hard as it requires an individual effort. The interest to know Romanian decreases because interest in literatures is falling as well. When I listen to the radio or I watch TV, I realize those people have not opened a book or a dictionary since high school. Books enrich the vocabulary, but this is usually done in a more… popular way. I was surprised to hear a news presenter saying that Prime Minister Filat criticized someone. The presenter used a word for “criticize”, which is no longer considered literary. I’m curios how many books this man has read. It’s a pity people are so indifferent about it. The intellectuals should do more about this issue. [ - Romanian speakers say they hear a foreign language more often then their native one . Some youth, born after the Independence, call streets the name they had in Soviet times. Why is this happening? Who can do something about it and what can he do?] - On streets, Russian is used more often because people want to make sure they’ll understand each over. Moldovans know Russian, while Russians are reluctant to speak Romanian. Besides, Russian is spoken by those who are unsure about their Romanian- it’s more shameful to make a mistake in your own language then in a foreign one, that’s how sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics explain it. Russian is known poorly by most Moldovans. They speak it much worse than 20 years ago. There is an increasing gap between Romanian and Russian speakers: the first don’t know Russian, the latter don’t know Romanian and this leads to some social tensions. In USSR, whether we like it or not, Russian united the society. It was used officially and at meetings, as two people couldn’t speak different languages. Now, the state language failed to do so, as it’s not influent enough. We must not discriminate those who don’t know it, but we must help them. We are very intolerant. If it were more understanding between people, the language would be common, as its role is to unite people. [ - How much does actual Moldova resemble your aspirations of 19 years ago?)] - Only half of them, but this was a short spell for the country. Besides, we could’ve had more achievements in a better economical environment. The promoted policies had no real support. Meanwhile, for intellectuals it’s still hard to buy a book or to participate in a conference, because they have no money. Nonetheless, I disagree with those who see only the bad things. If you think well, you’ll see that a lot has been done over the last 20 years. The youth don’t know what their predecessors had to go through, when it was forbidden to say “Romanian language” or to study a foreign one. Those were harsh times, but people forgot them too easily. I think we should be more tolerant and appreciate what we have. Perhaps, poverty would become more bearable. [Tatiana Ciobanu, Info-Prim Neo]