Romanian is the official language of the Republic of Moldova. The law of 1989 on the official language of the Soviet Moldova provided that Moldovan was the official language and was the main means of communication in all the social spheres. The Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova that was adopted in 1991 stipulates that Romanian is the official language. Later, in 1994, the Moldovan language with Latin script was enshrined in the Constitution as the official language. In 2013, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova ruled that the Declaration of Independence prevails over the Constitution and the name of the official language is that stipulated in the Declaration, which is Romanian.
The Romanian (Moldovan) language was declared the official language of Moldova, which was then the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1989. Also then, it was decided to use the Latin script. It happened after the Great National Assembly of August 27, 1989 that involved about 750,000 people, which was about 1/6 of the then population of the republic.
After the declaration of Moldova’s independence in 1991, “Romanian” was proclaimed the official language, alongside other official symbols such as the national anthem “Wake up, Romanian!”, tricolor red-yellow-blue flag and national coat of arms. In 1994, by the new Constitution the official name “Moldovan language” used in the Soviet period was restored.
The legal conflict concerning the use of two different names was the subject of a case examined by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, which, on December 5, 2013, decided that the Declaration of Independence prevails over the Constitution and, regardless of the name specified in the Constitution, “Romanian” is the official language of the Republic of Moldova.
The Romanian Language started to be celebrated in 1990, first as the Our Romanian Language or the Romanian Language Day. In 1994, the agrarian government decided to change the name of the holiday into “Our Langue”, based on the provisions of Article 13 of the Constitution. The subject “Romanian Language and Literature” has been taught in the Moldovan schools since 1991.
The President of Moldova Igor Dodon, immediately after he was invested, replaced the name “Romanian language” with “Moldovan language” on the website of the presidential administration. He repeatedly said that “We, the Moldovans, have the Moldovan language and our own history – the History of Moldova”. However, according to the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Romanian is the official (state) language of the Republic of Moldova and the sentence “Moldovan language that functions based on the Latin script” from Article 13, par. (1) of the Constitution can be semantically equaled to the Romanian language.
