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Kishenev

Chişinău (Moldovan Cyrillic: Кишинэу [kishinéu]; Russian: Кишинёв [kishinyov]) pronounced ki-shi-now, IPA /kiʃinəǔ/) is the capital and the largest city of Moldova. Chişinău is considered one of the greenest cities in Europe. Europe

Geography

The city is located on the river Bîc, a tributary of the Nistru (Dniestr), at , and is divided into five administrative districts. Chişinău has an area of 120 km² and its whole municipality has 635 km².

History

Founded in 1436 as a monastery town, the city was part of the Moldavian Principality, which, starting with the 16th century fell under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 19th century it was a small village of 7,000 inhabitants. In 1812 it was occupied by Russia, who made it the centre of Bessarabia. Its population had grown to 92,000 by 1862 and to 125,787 by 1900. The town played an important part in the war between Russia and Turkey (1877–78), as the chief centre of the Russian invasion. In the late 19th century, especially due to growing anti-semitic sentiment in Russia and Poland, many Jews chose to settle in Chişinău, so in the year 1900 43% of the population of Chişinău was Jewish. Chişinău was the site of two major pogroms April 6–7, 1903, and October 19–20, 1905 which were among the reasons for the large emigration of Eastern European Jews to Western Europe and the United States in the years immediately following. (See Kishinev pogrom) Romania held the city from 1918 to 1940, when it was seized by the USSR.

Economy

Chişinău is a major industrial and services centre; its main industries include consumer and electrical goods, building materials, machinery, plastics, rubber, and textiles. The main service fields are banking and shopping/commerce.

Transport

There are three bus terminals, an international airport (Chişinău International Airport), and an international railway terminal.

Education

The city is home to thirty-six universities, and to the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city has become a relatively lively and well-appointed capital, with a much higher standard of living than most rural areas. Soviet Union

Population

Total population - 601,000 (As of 2004)
- Moldovans - 68.4%
- Russians - 13.7%
- Ukrainians - 8.4%
- Romanians - 4.4%
- Bulgarians - 1.2%
- Gagauzians - 0.9%
- Others - 2.9% According to a May 19, 2005 story in Moldova Azi, a group of international census experts described the Moldovan census as "generally conducted in a professional manner", while remarking that that "a few topics… were potentially more problematic". Among the problematic topics: #The census includes at least some Moldovans who had been living abroad over one year at the time of the census. #The precision of numbers about nationality/ethnicity and language was questioned. Some enumerators apparently encouraged respondents to declare that they were "Moldovan" rather than "Romanian", and even within a single family there may have been confusion about these terms. With respect to these matters, especially the latter, the expert group recommended that the Moldovan National Bureau of Statistics carry out an evaluation study, offered their assistance in doing so, and indicated their intention of further studying the matter themselves. Moldova Azi

Name

The city was formerly known by its Russian language name, Кишинёв (Kishinyov); the somewhat inaccurate transliteration of that as Kishinev remains a common English-language name for the city, especially in historical contexts. The origin of the name is obscure. There is another city named Chişineu in Western Romania, near the border with Hungary and the etymology of this place is believed to be Hungarian "Kisjenő" (Small John). Another possible etymology is "kesene", a Cuman word for "crypt".

Notes

# [http://azi.md/news?ID=34282 Experts Offering to Consult the National Statistics Bureau in Evaluation of the Census Data], Moldova Azi, May 19, 2005, story attributed to AP Flux. Retrieved October 11, 2005.

References

External links

- [http://www.chisinau.md Official site of Chişinău] (in Romanian only)
- [http://www.kishinev.org Jewish community of Chişinău]
- "[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=247&letter=K Kishinef(Kishinev)]", by Rosenthal, Herman & Rosenthal, Max, in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906)
- [http://www.nomer.org/kishinev/ Chişinău telephone directory] (primarily in Russian, some minimal content in English, French, German)
- [http://www.moldovanet.net/rubrique.php?id_rubrique=27 Chişinău - Magazine Moldavie] (in French)
- [http://www.elections2005.md/chisinau/ 2005 Chişinău election for mayor]

Maps

- [http://www.allmoldova.com/map.php?lang=en Map of Chişinău]
- [http://uk.geocities.com/vitalie_eremia/chisinau.htm A Chişinău "interactive" map with images] Category:Cities in Moldova ko:키시너우 ja:キシナウ

Moldovan language

Moldovan (Latin alphabet: limba moldovenească, Cyrillic alphabet: лимба молдовеняскэ, sometimes translated into English as Moldavian) is the official name of the state language of the Republic of Moldova as specified by its constitution, as well as of the disputed territory of Transnistria.. A significant number of linguists consider standard Moldovan to be identical to standard Romanian, an Eastern Romance language, although a few Moldovan linguists dispute this. There are, however, more differences between the colloquial spoken languages of Moldova and Romania, most significantly due to the influence of Russian in Moldova which was not present in Romania. The matter of whether or not Moldovan is a separate language is a hotly contested political issue within and beyond the Republic of Moldova. "Moldovan" (graiul moldovenesc, in older sources limba moldovenească) can also refer to the speech of the historical region of Moldavia in Romania, one of the northern dialects of colloquial Romanian.

History and politics

Before 1812

References to a "Moldavian language" can be found in works as early as Grigore Ureche's "Chronicles of the Moldovan Nation", where it is noted that in actuality one language prevailed over the territory of Moldavia, Wallachia as well as Transylvania. The Moldavian scientist Dimitrie Cantemir presented a theory in Descriptio Moldaviae (Berlin 1714): that the Moldavians spoke the same language as Wallachians and Transylvanians. Cantemir also introduced the idea that some Romanian words had Dacian roots.

Language in imperial Russian Bessarabia

In the first years of Russian occupation (after 1812), because 95% of the population were Romanians who only knew their mother tongue, Romanian was admitted as an official language in the institutions of Bessarabia, used along with Russian. Gradually the Russian language gained importance. According to the dates offered by the Department for ruling the Bessarabia from 1828, the papers from bureau were published only in Russian, and around 1835 it is established a term of 7 years time in which the state institutions would still accept acts in Romanian language. Romanian was admitted as language of teaching only until 1842, after that being taught as a separate subject. Thus, at the seminary of Chişinău, the Romanian language was found on the list of compulsory subjects, with 10 hours weekly, until 1863, when the Department of Romanian was closed. At High School No.1 in Chişinău the pupils had the right to choose between Romanian, German, and Greek until 9 February 1866, when the State Counselor of the Russian Empire forbade teaching of the Romanian language, giving the justification: "the pupils know this language in the practical mode, and its teaching follows other goals". Around 1871, the tsar published an ukase "On the suspension of teaching the Romanian language in the schools from Bessarabia," because "in the Russian Empire local speeches are not taught".

Language shift in Bessarabia

The linguistic situation in Bessarabia from 1812 to 1918 was the gradual development of bilingualism. Russian continued to develop as the official language of priviledge, whereas Romanian remained the principal vernacular. The evolution of this linguistic situation, and the development of Moldovan, can be divided into five phases.

Phase one: 1812 to 1828

The period from 1812 to 1828 was on of neutral or functional bilingualism. Whereas Russian has official dominance, Romanian is not without influence, especially in the spheres of public administration, education (particularly religious education) and culture. In the years that immediately follow the annexation, loyalty to the Romanian language and customs becomes important. The Theological Seminary (Seminarul Teologic) and Lancaster Schools are opened in 1813 and 1824 respectively, Romanian grammar books are published, and the printing press at Chişinău begins to produce religious books.

Phase two: 1828 to 1843

The period from 1828 to 1843 is one of partial diglossic bilingualism. During this time, use of Romanian was forbidden in the sphere of administration. This was carried out by negative means: Romanian was imply excluded from the civil code. Romanian continued to be used in education, but only as a separate subject. Bilingual manuals, such as the Russian-Romanian Bucoavne grammar of Iacob Ghinculov, were publishedto meet the new need for bilingualism. Religious books and Sunday sermons remained the only monolingual public outlet for Romanian. By 1948, the removal of Romanian from public administration was complete.

Phase three: 1843 to 1871

The period from 1843 to 1871 was one of assimilation. Romanian continued to be a taught subject for some time — until 1866 at the Liceul Regional (high school), until 1867 at the Seminarul Teologic (Theological Seminary) and until 1871 at regional schools — until the teaching of the language was forbidden by law.

Phase four: 1871 to 1905

The period from 1871 to 1905 was one of official monolingualism in Russian. All public use of Romanian was phased out, and substituted with Russian. Romanian continued to be used as the colloquial language of home and family. This was the era of the highest level of assimilation in the Russian Empire. In 1872, the priest Pavel Lebedev ordered that all church documents be written in Russian, and, in 1882, the press at Chişinău was closed by order of the holy synod.

Phase five: 1905 to 1917

The period from 1905 to 1917 was one of increasing linguistic conflict, with the re-awakening of Romanian national consciousness. In 1905 and 1906, the Bessarabian zemstvels asked for the re-introduction of Romanian in schools as a "compulsory language", and the "liberty to teach in the mother language (Romanian langauge)". At the same time, the first Romanian-language newspapers and journals began to appear: Basarabia (1906), Viaţa Basarabiei (1907), Moldovanul (1907), Luminătorul (1908), Cuvînt moldovenesc (1913), Glasul Basarabiei (1913). From 1913, the synod permitted that "the churches in Besserabia use the Romanian language". The term Moldovan language ("limbă moldovenească") was newly employed to create a state-sponsored Ausbausprache to distinguish it from Romanian Romanian. Thus, Şt. Margeală, in 1827, states that the aim of his book is to "offer the 800,000 Romanians who live in Besserabia,...as well as to the millions of Romanians from the other part of Prut, the possibility of knowing the Russian language, and also for the Russians who want to study the Romanian language". In 1865 Ioan Doncev, editing his Romanian primer and grammar, affirmed that Moldovan is valaho-româno, or Romanian. However, after this date, the label Romanian language appears only sporadically in the correspondance of the educational authorities. Gradually, Moldovan became the sole label for the language: a situation that proved useful to those who wished for a cultural separation of Bessarabia from Romania. Although referring to another historical period, Kl. Heitmann stated that the "theory of two languages — Romanian and Moldovan — was served both in Moscow as well as in Chişinău to combat the nationalistic veleities of the Republic of Moldova, being, in fact, an action against Romanian nationalism".(Heitmann, 1965). The objective of the Russian glotopolitics in Besserabia was the dialectization of the Romanian language. A. Arţimovici, official of the Education Department based in Odessa, wrote a letter, dated 11 February 1863, to the Minister of Public Instructions stating: "I have the opinion that it will be hard to stop the Romanian population of Besserabia using the language of the neighbouring principalities, where the concentrated Romanian population may develop the language based on its Latin elements, not good for Slavic language. The government's directions pertaining to this case aim to make a new dialect in Besserabia, mor closely based on Slavic language, will be, as it will be seen, of no use: we cannot direct the teachers to teach a language that will soon be dead in Moldova and Wallachia...parents will not want their children to learn a different language to the one they currently speak". Although some clerks, like Arţimovici, realised that the creation of a dialect apart from the Romanian spoken in the United Principalities could never be truly effective, most of them "with the aim of fulfilling governmental policy, tendentiously called the majority language Moldovan, even in the context where Romanian had always been used previously".

Beginnings of the Moldovan language

1863 The territory of Bessarabia which forms most of the present-day Republic of Moldova, historically the eastern part of the principality of Moldavia, was annexed from the Ottoman Empire by Imperial Russia in 1812 and remained a Russian territory until the October Revolution of 1917. In 1918, Bessarabia united with Romania. With the creation in 1924 of the Moldavian ASSR within the Ukrainian SSR, the Soviet authorities declared the variety spoken by the majority of Moldavians to be "Moldavian language", allegedly for the purpose of giving the region its own identity separate from Romania. The Latin alphabet which had been used for writing the language for the past 80 years was changed to a version of the Cyrillic alphabet derived from the Russian variant. To justify this, the government noted that up until just 80 years prior, the language was usually written in Cyrillic. (See: Moldovan alphabet) As a result of the transfers of the territory and the accompanying migration of the population, including deportations of the ethnic Romanians and encouraged migration from the rest of the USSR, by the mid-20th century Bessarabia acquired large communities of Russian speakers, among the Moldovan natives. Also, during Soviet rule, Moldovan speakers were encouraged to learn the Russian language as a prerequisite for access to higher education, social status and political power. All this contributed to proliferation of Russian loanwords in spoken Moldovan.

Romanizators and Originalists

At these times there were discussions between the supporters ("Romanizators" or "Romanists") and opponents ("Originalists") of the convergence of Moldavian and Romanian languages. In particular, Originalists strove to base the literary Moldavian language on local dialects. Neologisms were created to cover technical areas that had no native Moldavian equivalent. As a result, the textbooks, e.g., in botany or physics were barely readable to the uninitiated. In February 1932 Moldovan communists received a directive from the Communist Party of Ukraine to switch Moldovan writing to the Latin alphabet. This was part of the massive campaign in the USSR of latinization of the alphabets of lesser nationalities, based on the theory of Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr postulating the convergence to a single world language, expected to be a means of communication in the future classless society (communism). This directive was passively sabotaged by the "originalist" majority, until Stanislav Kosior (General Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party) and some Moldovan communists visited Stalin, who reportedly insisted on faster latinization with the ultimate goal of the convergence of Moldavian and Romanian cultures, hinting at the possibility that in future Moldova and Romania would be reunited. Nevertheless, the resistance to Romanization persisted, and after 1933 a number of prominent "originalists" were repressed, their books destroyed, and their neologisms banned. After the infamous February-March (1937) VKP(b) Central Committee Plenum, which escalated the Great Purge, both Romanizators and Originalists were declared "imperialist spies": Originalists, because they sabotaged the Latinization, and Romanizators, because they were "agents of boyar Romania" ("Боярская Румыния"). In February 1938 the Moldavian communists issued a declaration transferring Moldavian writing to the Cyrillic alphabet once again, which in August 1939 was made into the law of the republic. The motivation was that the Latinization was used by "bourgeois-nationalist elements" to "distantance the Moldavian populace from the Ukrainian and Russian ones, with the ultimate goal of the separation of Soviet Moldavia from the USSR".

Moldavian in Soviet Moldova

In June 1940, twenty-two years after the union with Romania, the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia. A year later, in 1941, Romania invaded the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa and retook Bessarabia, along with the territory between Dnestr and Bug rivers. These territories were taken back by the Soviet Union 3 years later in 1944, and remained under Soviet administration until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1956, during the rehabilitation of the victims of Stalinist repression, a special report was issued about the state of the Moldavian language, which stated, in part, that the discussions of 1920-30s between the two tendencies were mostly non-scientific, since in the republic there were very few linguists, and that the grammar and the basic lexicon of literary Romanian and Moldovan languages are identical, while differences are secondary and nonessential. Once again, the planned convergence of the Romanian and Moldovan languages was approved, bearing in mind the political situation in the People's Republic of Romania.

Reversion to Latin script, and beyond

In 1989, the contemporary Romanian version of the Latin alphabet was made the official script of the Moldavian SSR. After the independence of Moldova in 1991, "Romanian" was declared the official language, but the 1994 constitution changed the name of the language to "Moldovan". When in 1992 the Romanian Academy changed the official orthography of Romania, the Institute of Linguistics at the ASM did not make the same changes, and the official orthography continued as before (for more detail, see below). A 1996 attempt by Moldovan president Mircea Snegur to change the official language to "Romanian" was dismissed by the Moldovan Parliament as promoting Romanian expansionism. In 2002, the government of Moldova gave the Russian language the same privileges as Moldovan, since after Soviet rule and the massive Russian and Ukrainian settlement it invited, a significant proportion of the population were mother-tongue speakers of Russian. It was declared to be a mandatory foreign language in schools. This created a wave of indignation among the Moldovan-speaking majority of the population, and rallies against this decision were organized in Chişinău and other major cities. They were largely attended by students and youths . Just as the population of Russian-speakers in the Baltic States has been declining over the past 15 years, so as that of Moldova. In 2003, a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary (Stati 2003) was published. The linguists of the Romanian Academy in Romania declared that all the Moldovan words are also Romanian words, although some of its contents are disputed as being neologism resulting from Russification. In Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Bărbuţă, described the dictionary as "an absurdity, serving political purposes". Supporters of Stati, however, accused both of promoting "Romanian colonialism". On the 2004 census, about two thirds of the Romanian-Moldovans, which are the majority population in the Republic of Moldova, 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.

Linguistic view

The main debate surrounding the status of Moldovan is its status in relation to Romanian, specifically, whether it is a dialect of Romanian (or vice-versa), a separate language, or whether "Romanian" and "Moldovan" are in fact two different names for the same thing. This debate is not scientific, however, since linguistics as a science considers all divisions of languages and dialects as arbitrary groupings of idiolects. However, in practice, it is sometimes necessary for linguists to designate separate "dialects" and "languages", despite the fact that there are no widely agreed-upon criteria for doing so. The Ethnologue classifies Moldovan as a Romanian dialect, and states that the official and primary language of Moldova is Romanian. The spoken language in most of Moldova is part of the Moldavian dialect of Romanian, also spoken in Eastern Romania.

Official view

The constitution of the Republic of Moldova refers to the country's language as Moldovan rather than Romanian, although "Romanian" was the official language between 1991 and 1994. In practice, however, it is often referred to as "Romanian" or "the language of the state". In schools, the language is called Romanian, and textbooks from Romania are used significantly in the Moldovan education system. The Academy of Sciences of Moldova calls the language Romanian . Additionally, several government departments call the language Romanian, and their websites are offered in Romanian, Russian and often English, but not "Moldovan". These include the Ministry of Education [http://www.edu.md/], the Ministry of Justice [http://www.justice.gov.md/], the Ministry of Transport and Roads [http://mci.gov.md/], the Ministry of Internal Affairs [http://www.mai.md/], the Office of Statistics [http://www.statistica.md/?lang=ro] and the Department of Migration [http://www.migratie.md/]. There is a growing international recognition that Moldovan language is in fact Romanian. In particular, in factsheets by US Department of State and in documents of some other countries Romanian is listed as the official language of Moldova. In 2002, the Moldovan Minister of Justice, Ion Morei, said that Romanian and Moldovan are the same language and that the Constitution of Moldova should be amended, not necessarily by changing the word Moldovan into Romanian, but by adding that "Romanian and Moldovan are the same language". Education Minister Valentin Beniuc said "I have stated more than once that the notion of a Moldovan language and a Romanian language reflects the same lingustic phenomenon in essence.". Additionally, Tatiana Mlecico continually referred to the language as Romanian during a press conference when she was the chief of the Department of Interethnic Relations.. According to newspaper reports about the most recent Moldovan census, about 45% of all mother language speakers of Daco-Romanian declared their native language to be "Moldovan", while 55% declared their native language to be "Romanian". There is no official statement from the Moldovan center of statistics yet.

Alphabet and spelling

Cyrillic was replaced by Latin as the official alphabet for the Moldovan language in 1989. Nearly all urban Moldovans can read the Latin alphabet, although many over 30 are more comfortable writing in Cyrillic, as it was compulsorily script of their education. In the countryside, many people over 30 — especially peasants — prefer Cyrillic, but may write in the Latin alphabet, though with difficulty. The Romanian characters â and î are both written as î in Moldovan. Although â and î sound identical in speech, the Romanian justification for using these two characters is to bring Romanian closer orthographically to other Romance languages, and that etymologically, â and î are separate. In the Moldovan language, only the word "română" (Romanian) and "România" (Romania) are written with â, officially. Romanian sunt is written as sînt in Moldovan. However, in Moldovan Cyrillic, it is variably written сунт(sunt) or сынт(sînt). Although it is actually pronounced sînt in both languages, the Romanian justification for writing sunt is that it is etymologically correct and that it brings Romanian closer orthographically to other Romance languages. Many Moldovans who use "î/â" spellings write sânt, which is not an officially accepted spelling in either country. It must be noted that, before the 1990s, Romanian used the same orthography as Moldovan (with just the character î and sînt). The decision to change the orthography to the â/î/sunt format was made by the Romanian Academy in 1993. However, in both countries, the official versions are not always respected. For example, some Romanian newspapers use the "î"/"sînt" spelling (Academia Caţavencu among others), while some Moldovan newspapers use "î/â/sunt" spelling. (Accente, Garda, Timpul etc). Only very rarely are "română" and derivatives are written using "î", and most people from either country will consider it to be incorrect usage.

Spoken language in Chişinău and its suburbs

The colloquial Moldovan of Chişinău and its suburbs tends to use a much higher number of Russian and Ukrainian loanwords than in Romania, though such words are generally avoided in formal situations. Residents of rural areas tend to use less slang and foreign words, and their speech is reported to be more conservative than that of residents of urban areas. In Chişinău, most strangers, even ethnic Moldovans, address one another in Russian, despite the fact that Moldovan is official language. In the autonomous regions of Gagauzia and Transnistria, Russian predominates while Moldovan is spoken by a minority. Unlike in the villages or towns, where a more conservative form of the language is observed, the spoken language of the larger cities is an amalgamation of Romanian and Russian, which has been called a "jargon" by some, although it could perhaps be called a creole since it is the native variety for some. Only some nationally-conscious members of the elite urban intelligentsia make any effort to purge Russian words from their speech. In the countryside, Russian linguistic influences tend to be far fewer, excepting the regions of Gagauzia and Transnistria. Speakers of Moldovan tend to code-switch their language with Russian. Among younger speakers, situational code switching is common, especially among people of Russian and Ukrainian heritage, and even moreso among the children of mixed marriages. It is also common in situations where one person's native language is Moldovan/Romanian and the other person's native language is Russian, for each person to speak in his native language even though the other person responds in the other language. This often results in some degree of intentional grammatical simplification (or "foreigner talk", as it is sometimes known due to intentional grammatical simplification often used when speaking to foreigners), and a higher frequency of borrowing words from the other language than in normal discourse. Examples of bilingual code switching or other contact linguistic phenomena (what is occurring here is debatable); Romanian words in italics, Russian words in bold: Original: "Pai, imi pare ca va fi cam gruzno sa calculezi totul de la inceput."
English: Well, I think it would be kind of hard to calculate everything from the start.
Romanian: Pai, imi pare ca va fi cam greu sa calculezi totul de la inceput.
Original: Ugu, oricum, am sa mai incerc.
English: Yes, still, I will try again.
Romanian: Da, oricum, am sa mai incerc.
Original: Prikin', ieri cand ma plimbam prin parc am intalnit o fata super draguta.
English: Can you imagine that, while walking through the park yesterday, I met a very pretty girl.
Romanian: Iti inchipui, ieri cand ma plimbam prin parc am intalnit o fata super draguta.

Comparison with Romanian

The sample below taken from the Constitutions of Moldova and Romania proves that a formal text in Romanian and Moldovan may be identical. The colloquial languages show more difference, which varies over the area.

Notes

- The Cyrillic script has not been in official use in the Republic of Moldova since independence 1989, but is official in Transnistria, and is still used by smaller groups elsewhere.
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=MD Ethnologue report for Moldova]
- [http://www.vremea.net/news/2005-01-13/18:45:35.html Interview with Vasile Stati], Vremea
- World Bank, Reviews of National Policies for Education: Moldova, p. 51
- [http://www.edu.md/?lng=ro&MenuItem=5&SubMenu0=7 The Moldovan Ministry of Education: Gaining Moldovan citizenship] (in Romanian)
- [http://www.edu.md/?lng=ro&MenuItem=6&SubMenu0=1&SubMenu1=2&article=inv_preuniversitar/reg_ex_absolvire_gimnaziu The Moldovan Ministry of Education: Pre-university education] (in Romanian)
- [http://www.vlg.sisnet.ro/arhiva/2834/Cultura.htm "Bessarabian teachers perfect themselves in Galaţi], from Viaţa Liberă a Galaţi-based weekly (in Romanian)
- [http://www.azi.md/news?ID=20643 Ion Morei: The Moldovan langage is identical to the Romanian language], Moldova Azi, 10 September 2002
- [http://www.jurnal.md/articol.php?id=1708&editie=283 Din nou fără burse], Jurnal de Chişinău, 25 May 2004
- [http://www.asm.md/institute/lingvist/index.htm Academy of Sciences of Moldova] website
- [http://www.east-west-wg.org/cst/cst-mold/a_dia.html Language in Moldova - observations in streets and houses in the Republic of Moldova] by Diana Nissler
- Grenoble 2003, pp 89-93
- Kogan Page 2004, p 291 ; IHT, 16 June 2000, p. 2 ; Dyer 1999 , 2005
- Stati 2003
- Simpson 2003
- Wikipedia article: Language
- Kogan Page 2004, p 242
- From the official website of the Ukrainian census: [http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/]

References

- Grenoble, Lenore A (2003) Language Policy in the Soviet Union, Springer, ISBN 1402012985
- Dyer, D. (1999). The Romanian Dialect of Moldova: A Study in Language and Politics. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. (ISBN 0773480374)
- Dyer, Donald Leroy, ed. Studies in Moldovan. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs), 1996. (ISBN 0880333510)
- Stati, V.N. Dicţionar moldovenesc-românesc. [=Moldovan-Romanian dictionary.] Chişinău: Tipografia Centrală (Biblioteca Pro Moldova), 2003. (ISBN 9975782485)
- Ильяшенко, Татьяна Павловна. Языковые контакты : на материале славиано-молдав, отношений. Moscow: "Наука" [Nauka = Science], 1970. (LCCN 78510414)
- Bruchis, M. (1982). One Step Back, Two Steps Forward. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs). (ISBN 0880330023)
- Bruchis, M. (1984). Nations, Nationalities, Peoples. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs). (ISBN 0880330570)
- Bruchis, M. (1988). USSR Language and Realities. New York: Columbia University Press (East European Monographs). (ISBN 088033147X)
- Dumbrava, V. (2004). Sprachkonflikt Und Sprachbewusstsein In Der Republik Moldova: Eine Empirische Studie In Gemischtethnischen Familien (Sprache, Mehrsprachigkeit Und Sozialer Wandel). Bern: Peter Lang Publishing. (ISBN 3631507283)
- Movileanu N. Din istoria Transnistriei (1924-1940), Revista de istorie a Moldovei, 1993, #2.
- Negru E. Introducerea si interzicerea grafiei latine in R.A.S.S.M, 1999, Revista de istorie a Moldovei, #3-4.
- (2004). Europe Review 2003/2004. Kogan Page.
- Grigore Ureche, (Letopiseţul Ţării Moldovei)

External links

- [http://www.contrafort.md/2002/90-91/338.html Conference presentation by Tamara Cărăuş, about identity issues in Moldova]
- [http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/oldworld/europe/moldavia.html Text collected by Jesse Schuld]
- [http://www.east-west-wg.org/cst/cst-mold/diana.html Essay on Language in Moldavia by Diana Nissler]
- [http://www.east-west-wg.org/cst/cst-mold/newnat.html Article by Attila Demkó]
- [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/moldovan.htm Moldovan (Cyrillic) alphabet and pronunciation. The entry states that Moldovan is a dialect of Romanian.]
- [http://members.dslextreme.com/users/gm-undernet/tvp/fun.html Songs with lyrics in Moldovan, a demonstration of the colloquial language of Chişinău (MP3)]
- [http://www.kspmr.idknet.com/md/ Constitutional Court of Transnistria site in Moldovan-Cyrillic (куртя конституционалэ)]
- [http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Romnilang Columbia Encyclopedia: Article on the Romanian language, stating that it is spoken by 3 million people in Moldova]
- [http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Moldova Columbia Encyclopedia: Article on Moldova, stating that Moldovan is virtually indistinguishable from Romanian] Category:Moldova Category:Languages of Moldova Category:Romanian language ja:モルドバ語

Cyrillic

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.

Origins

The plan of the alphabet is derived from the early Cyrillic alphabet, itself a derivative of the Glagolitic alphabet, a ninth century uncial cursive usually credited to two brothers from Thessaloniki, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. The glyphs in the Cyrillic alphabet are, however, mainly Byzantine Greek letters. Some of them, especially those representing sounds that did not exist in medieval Greek, retain their Glagolitic forms. Whereas it is widely accepted that the Glagolitic alphabet was invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius, the origins of the early Cyrillic alphabet are still a source of much controversy. Though it is usually attributed to Saint Clement of Ohrid, a Bulgarian scholar and disciple of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, the alphabet is more likely to have developed at the Preslav Literary School in north-eastern Bulgaria, where the oldest Cyrillic inscriptions have been found, dating back to the 940s. The theory is supported by the fact that the Cyrillic alphabet almost completely replaced the Glagolitic in northeastern Bulgaria as early as the end of the tenth century, whereas the Ohrid Literary School—where Saint Clement worked—continued to use the Glagolitic until the twelfth century. Among the reasons for the replacement of the Glagolithic with the Cyrillic alphabet is the greater simplicity and ease of use of the latter and its closeness with the Greek alphabet, which had been well known in the First Bulgarian Empire. There are also other theories regarding the origins of the Cyrillic alphabet, namely that the alphabet was created by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius themselves, or that it preceded the Glagolitic alphabet, representing a "transitional" stage between Greek and Glagolitic cursive, but these have been widely disproved. Although Cyril is almost certainly not the author of the Cyrillic alphabet, his contributions to the Glagolitic and hence to the Cyrillic alphabet are still recognised, as the latter is named after him. The alphabet was disseminated along with the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language, and the alphabet used for modern Church Slavonic language in Eastern Orthodox rites still resembles early Cyrillic. However, over the following ten centuries, the Cyrillic alphabet adapted to changes in spoken language, developed regional variations to suit the features of national languages, and was subjected to academic reforms and political decrees. Today, dozens of languages in Eastern Europe and Asia are written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Letter-forms and typography

The development of Cyrillic typography passed directly from the medieval stage to the late Baroque, without a Renaissance phase as in Western Europe. Late Medieval Cyrillic letters (still found on many icon inscriptions even today) show a marked tendency to be very tall and narrow; strokes are often shared between adjacent letters. Peter the Great, tsar of Russia, mandated the use of westernized letter forms in the early eighteenth century; over time, these were largely adopted in the other languages that use the alphabet. Thus, unlike modern Greek fonts that retained their own set of design principles (such as the placement of serifs, the shapes of stroke ends, and stroke-thickness rules), modern Cyrillic fonts are much the same as modern Latin fonts of the same font family. The development of some Cyrillic computer typefaces from Latin ones has also contributed to the visual Latinization of Cyrillic type. Cyrillic uppercase and lowercase letter-forms are not as differentiated as in Latin typography. Upright Cyrillic lowercase letters are essentially small capitals (with the exception of a few forms such as "а" and "е" which adopted western lowercase shapes), although a good-quality Cyrillic typeface will still include separate small caps glyphs. small capitals In the absence of Roman and Italic traditions, Cyrillic type fonts are properly classified as upright (Russian: pryamoi shrift) and cursive (kursivnyi). Cursive or hand-written shapes of many letters, especially the lowercase letters, are entirely different from the upright shapes. As in Latin typography, a sans-serif face may have a mechanically-sloped oblique font (naklonnyi). In Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbian, some cursive letters are different from those used in other languages. These cursive letter shapes are often used in upright fonts as well, especially for road signs, inscriptions, posters and the like, less so in newspapers or books. External link: [http://jankojs.tripod.com/SerbianCyr.htm Serbian Cyrillic Letters BE, GHE, DE, PE, TE]. The following table shows the differences between the upright and cursive Cyrillic letters as used in Russian. Cursive glyphs that are bound to confuse beginners (either because of an entirely different look, or because of being a false friend with an entirely different Latin character) are highlighted. Reference: Bringhurst, Robert (2002). The Elements of Typographic Style (version 2.5), pp. 262–264. Vancouver, Hartley & Marks. ISBN 0-88179-133-4.

Romanization

There are various systems for Romanization of Cyrillic text, including transliteration to convey Cyrillic spelling in Latin characters, and transcription to convey pronunciation. Standard Cyrillic-to-Latin transliteration systems include:
- Scientific transliteration, used in linguistics, is based on the Latin Croatian alphabet.
- The [http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/ Working Group on Romanization Systems] of the United Nations recommends different systems for specific languages. These are the most commonly used around the world.
- ISO 9:1995, from the International Organization for Standardization.
- America Library Association & Library of Congress (ALA-LC) [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html Romanization tables for Slavic alphabets], used in North American libraries.
- BGN/PCGN 1947 transliteration system (United States Board on Geographic Names & Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use).
- GOST 16876-71 (1983), from the Main Administration of Geodesy and Cartography of the former Soviet Union. Russian abbreviation of GOsudarstvenny STandart, "the State Standard". GOST has limited support for non-Russian alphabets. Serbian is written in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. There is also a Latin alphabet for Belarusian, and some non-Slavic languages, such as Azerbaijani, Uzbek or Moldavian have confronted permanent Romanization after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In Serbian there is a one-to-one correspondence between Vuk Karadžić's Serbian Cyrillic and Ljudevit Gaj's Croatian Gajica (derived from the Czech alphabet. See Serbo-Croatian language#Writing systems.) The Belarusian Latin alphabet is traditionally based on Polish and is called Łacinka, but, because of the political realities in the former USSR, Belarusian is usually Romanized by analogy to Russian. See also:
- Romanization.
- Transliteration of Russian into English.
- Romanization of Ukrainian.
- Transliteration of Bulgarian into English. External links:
- [http://transliteration.eki.ee/ Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts], a collection of writing systems and transliteration tables, by Thomas T. Pederson. Includes PDF reference charts for many languages' transliteration systems.

As used in various languages

Sounds are indicated using IPA. These are only approximate indicators. While these languages by and large have phonemic orthographies, there are occasional exceptions—for example, Russian его (meaning him/his), which is pronounced instead of . Note that spellings of names may vary, especially Y/J/I, but also GH/G/H and ZH/J.

Slavic languages

Old Church Slavonic

Main article: early Cyrillic alphabet Old Church Slavonic is the first literary and liturgical Slavic language developed from the native language of the 9th century missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. It is not the same as the modern Church Slavonic language, which is still used in some Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic church services. As the Cyrillic alphabet spread throughout the Slavic world, it was adopted for writing local languages, such as Old Ruthenian. Its adaptation to the characteristics of local languages led to the development of its many modern variants, below. Yeri (ЪІ) was originally a ligature of Yer and I. Ya (Я) was written in an archaic form called A iotified. Capital and lowercase letters were not distinguished in old manuscripts. The early Cyrillic alphabet is difficult to represent on computers. Many of the letterforms differed from modern Cyrillic and varied a great deal in manuscripts, and changed over time. Few fonts include adequate glyphs to reproduce the alphabet. Some characters are missing from the current Unicode standard altogether, including Cyrillic dotless I, iotified Yat, abbreviated Yer ("Yerok"), and many ligatures. See also: Glagolitic alphabet.

Russian

Main article: Russian alphabet Notes: # In the pre-reform Russian orthography, in Old Russian and in Old Church Slavonic the letter is called yer. Historically, the "hard sign" takes the place of a now-absent vowel, still preserved in Bulgarian. See the notes for Bulgarian. # When an iotated vowel (vowel whose sound begins with ) follows a consonant, the consonant will become palatalised (the sound will mix with the consonant), and the vowel's sound will not be heard independently. The Hard Sign will indicate that this does not happen, and the sound will appear only in front of the vowel. The Soft Sign will indicate the consonant should be palatised, but the vowel's sound will not mix with the palatalization of the consonant. The Soft Sign will also indicate that a consonant before another consonant or at the end of a word is palatised. Examples: та (); тя (); тья (); тъя (); т (); ть (). Historical letters: before 1918, there were four extra letters in use: (replaced by Ии), (Фита "Fita", replaced by Фф), (Ять "Yat", replaced by Ее), and (ижица "Izhitsa", replaced by Ии); these were eliminated by reforms of Russian orthography.

Ukrainian

Main article: Ukrainian alphabet. Ukrainian differs from Russian in the following ways:
- He (Г, г) is a voiced fricative consonant, pronounced .
- Ge (Ґ, ґ) appears after He, pronounced , i.e., like a Russian Г. It looks like He with an "upturn" pointing up from the right side of the top bar. (This letter was not officially used in the Soviet Union after 1933, so it is missing from older Cyrillic fonts.)
- E (Е, е) is pronounced .
- Ye (Є, є) appears after E, pronounced . It looks like a mirrored Russian letter Э.
- Y (И, и) is pronounced (similar to Russian Yery).
- I (І, і) appears after Y, pronounced . It looks like the Latin letter I.
- Yi (Ї, ї) appears after I, pronounced . It looks like I with a diaeresis above it (the same two dots that appear over the Russian letter Yo).
- Yot (Й, й) is the equivalent of Russian Short I.
- Shcha (Щ, щ) is pronounced .
- An apostrophe (’) serves the purpose of the Russian Hard Sign.
- Yo does not appear.

Belarusian

Belarusian is also written in a Belarusian Latin alphabet (Łacinka). Historically, Belarusian Tatars have written the language in the Arabic alphabet (Arabica), and Belarusian Jews in the Hebrew alphabet. NB: Before 1933, Ґ () was also present. Some linguists call for restoring the letter. Belarusian differs from Russian in the following ways:
- I looks like the Latin letter I (І, і). (But non-syllable short I looks the same as in Russian.)
- Between U and Ef is the letter U short (Ў, ў), which looks like U (У) with a breve and pronounced , or like the u part in diphthongs in now, low.
- Shcha (Щщ) does not appear. A combination of sh and ch (ШЧ/шч) is typically used instead.
- The Hard Sign is not used. Its purpose (removing of palatalisation) is served by an apostrophe.
- The letter combinations Дж дж and Дз дз appear after Д д in the Belarusian alphabet in some publications. These digraphs each represent one sound: Дж , Дз .
- Г represents a voiced fricative consonant.

External links

- [http://www.pravapis.org/art_belarusian_alphabet.asp Introduction to Belarusian Alphabet]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/art_lac1.asp Introduction to Belarusian Latin Script]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/art_kitab1_en.asp Belarusian language using Arabic script]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/art_letter_frequency.asp Letter Frequency in Belarusian and Russian]
- [http://www.pravapis.org/translator.asp Converter from Latin "Translit" into Cyrillics]

Bulgarian

See Bulgarian language#Alphabet. Bulgarian differs from Russian in the following ways:
- Ye (Е) is pronounced and is called "E".
- Yo (Ё) does not appear.
- The Russian letter Э does not appear.
- Shcha (Щ) is pronounced and is called "Shta".
- The Hard Sign (Ъ) is used for a vowel, (Schwa).
- Yery (Ы) does not appear.

Modern Serbian since the 19th century

Serbian can also be written with the Latin alphabet. See Serbo-Croatian language. Serbian differs from Russian in the following ways:
- Ye is pronounced . Yo does not appear. The Russian letter E does not appear.
- Between D and E is the letter Djə (Ђ, ђ), which is pronounced , and looks like Tjə, except that the loop of the H curls farther and dips downwards.
- Short I does not appear. Between I and K is the letter Jə (Ј, ј), pronounced , which looks like the Latin letter J.
- Between L and M is the letter Ljə (Љ, љ), pronounced , which looks like L and the Soft Sign smashed together.
- Between N and O is the letter Njə (Њ, њ), pronounced , which looks like N and the Soft Sign smashed together.
- Between T and U is the letter Tjə (Ћ, ћ), which is pronounced and looks like a lowercase Latin letter h with a bar. On the uppercase letter, the bar appears at the top; on the lowercase letter, the bar crosses the top half of the vertical line.
- Between Ch and Sh is the letter Dzhə (Џ, џ), pronounced , which looks like Ts but with the downturn moved from the right side of the bottom bar to the middle of the bottom bar.
- Sh is the last letter; the rest do not appear.

Macedonian

Macedonian differs from Serbian in the following ways:
- Between Ze and I is the letter Dze (Ѕ, ѕ), pronounced , which looks like the Latin letter S.
- Djerv is replaced by Gje (Ѓ, ѓ), pronounced , which looks like Ghe with an acute accent (´).
- Tjerv is replaced by Kja (Ќ, ќ), pronounced , which looks like Ka with an acute accent (´).

Non-Slavic languages

These alphabets are generally modelled after Russian, but often bear striking differences, particularly when adapted for Caucasian languages. The first few of them were generated by Orthodox missionaries for the Finnic and Turkic peoples of Idel-Ural (Mari, Udmurt, Mordva, Chuvash, Kerashen Tatars) in 1870s. Later such alphabets were created for some of the Siberian and Caucasus peoples who had recently converted to Christianity. In the 1930s, some of those alphabets were switched to the Uniform Turkic Alphabet. All of the peoples of the former Soviet Union who had been using an Arabic or other Asian script (Mongolian script, etc.) also adopted Cyrillic alphabets, and during the Great Purge in late 1930s, all of the Roman-based alphabets of the peoples of then Soviet Union were switched over to Cyrillic as well. The Abkhazian alphabet was switched to Georgian script, but after the death of Stalin Abkhaz also adopted Cyrillic. The last language to adopt Cyrillic was the Gagauz language, which had used Greek script before. In Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, the use of Cyrillic to represent local languages has often been a politically controversial issue after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it evokes the era of Soviet rule (see Russification). Some of Russia's languages have also tried to drop Cyrillic, but the move was halted under Russian law (see Tatar alphabet). A number of languages have switched from Cyrillic to other orthographies—either Roman-based or returning to a former script. Unlike the Roman alphabet, which is usually adapted to different languages by using additions to existing letters such as accents, umlauts, tildes and cedillas, the Cyrillic alphabet is usually adapted by the creation of entirely new letter shapes. In some alphabets invented in the 19th century, such as Mari, Udmurt and Chuvash, umlauts and breves also were used.

Abkhaz

Abkhaz is a Caucasian language, spoken in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia. See Abkhaz alphabet.

Turkic languages

Chuvash

The Cyrillic alphabet is used for the Chuvash language since the late 19th century, with some changes in 1938.

Kazakh

Kazakh is also written with the Latin alphabet (in Turkey and now in Kazakhstan as well), and modified Arabic alphabet (in China, Iran and Afghanistan).
- Ә ә =
- Ғ ғ = (uvular fricative)
- Қ қ = (uvular plosive)
- Ң ң =
- Ө ө =
- У у = , ,
- Ұ ұ =
- Ү ү =
- Һ һ =
- İ і = The Cyrillic letters Вв, Ёё, Цц, Чч, Щщ, Ъъ, Ьь and Ээ are not used in native Kazakh words, but only for Russian loans.

Kyrgyz

Kyrgyz has also been written in Latin and in Arabic.
- Ң ң =
- Ү ү =
- Ө ө =

Moldovan

The Moldovan language used the Cyrillic alphabet between 1946 and 1989. Nowadays, this alphabet is still official in the breakaway republic of Transnistria.

Mongolian

The Mongolic languages include Khalkha (in Mongolia), Buryat (around Lake Baikal) and Kalmyk (northwest of the Caspian Sea). Khalkha Mongolian is also written with the Mongol vertical alphabet, which is being slowly reintroduced in Mongolia.

Khalkha

- В в =
- Е е = ,
- Ё ё =
- Ж ж =
- З з =
- Н н = ,
- Ө ө =
- Ү ү =
- Ы ы = (after a hard consonant)
- Ь ь = (extra short)
- Ю ю = , The Cyrillic letters Кк, Фф and Щщ are not used in native Mongolian words, but only for Russian loans.

Buryat

The Buryat (буряад) Cyrillic alphabet is similar to the Khalkha above, but Ьь indicates palatalization as in Russian. Buryat does not use Вв, Кк, Фф, Цц, Чч, Щщ or Ъъ in its native words.
- Е е = ,
- Ё ё =
- Ж ж =
- Н н = ,
- Ө ө =
- Ү ү =
- Һ һ =
- Ы ы = ,
- Ю ю = ,

Kalmyk

The Kalmyk (хальмг) Cyrillic alphabet is similar to the Khalkha, but the letters Ээ, Юю and Яя appear only word-initially. In Kalmyk, long vowels are written double in the first syllable (нөөрин), but single in syllables after the first. Short vowels are omitted altogether in syllables after the first syllable (хальмг = xaʎmag).
- Ә ә =
- В в =
- Һ һ =
- Е е = ,
- Җ җ =
- Ң ң =
- Ө ө =
- Ү ү =

Cyrillic in Unicode

Main article: Cyrillic characters in Unicode. In Unicode, the Cyrillic block extends from U+0400 to U+052F. The characters in the range U+0400 to U+045F are basically the characters from ISO 8859-5 moved upward by 864 positions. The characters in the range U+0460 to U+0489 are historic letters, not used now. The characters in the range U+048A to U+052F are additional letters for various languages that are written with Cyrillic script. Unicode does not include accented Cyrillic letters, but they can be combined by adding U+0301 ("combining acute accent") after the accented vowel (e.g., ы́ э́ ю́ я́). Some languages (e.g., modern Church Slavonic) still are not fully supported.

External links

- [http://toma.dnsalias.net/phonetic Bulgarian Online Transliterator]
- [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm Cyrillic alphabet at omniglot.com]
- [http://www.terena.nl/library/multiling/euroml/mlcs5-cyr.txt A Survey of The Use of Modern Cyrillic Script], including the complete required repertoire of graphic characters, by J. W. van Wingen.
- [http://www.peoples.org.ru/eng_index.html Minority Languages of Russia on the Net], a list of resources.
- [http://www.easybulgarian.com/members/u0a_sample.html Bulgarian Cyrillic Alphabet audio]
- [http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/translit.htm Information on Cyrillic transliteration] and the handwritten script form of Cyrillic.
- [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0400.pdf Unicode Code Charts "Cyrillic"] (PDF)
- [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0500.pdf Unicode Code Charts "Cyrillic Supplement"] (PDF)
- [http://czyborra.com/charsets/cyrillic.html The Cyrillic Charset Soup], Roman Czyborra's overview and history of Cyrillic charsets.
- [https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=561 The Russ Key Mozilla Firefox extension], this extension allows typing in Russian and other languages and transliterating HTML text into Cyrillic. Category:Cyrillic alphabet als:Kyrillisches Alphabet ko:키릴 문자 ja:キリル文字 th:อักษรซีริลลิก

Moldova

The Republic of Moldova (conventional long form, conventional short form: Moldova, local official long form: Republica Moldova) is a landlocked country in eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the east. Historically the territory was a part of the Principality of Moldavia; in 1812 it was annexed by Russia, a situation which lasted until 1918 when it became part of Greater Romania. Annexed by the Soviet Union, during 1940-1941, 1945-1991 it was known as as the Moldavian SSR. Moldova declared its independence on 27 August 1991.

History

Main article: History of Moldova Moldova's territory was inhabited in ancient times by Dacians. Situated on a strategic route between Asia and Europe, Moldova has suffered from several invasions, including those of the Kievan Rus' and the Mongols. During the Middle Ages the territory of Republic of Moldova (including most of present-day Moldova but also including districts to the north and south, known as Northern Bukovina and Budjak) formed the eastern part of the principality of Moldavia (which, like the present-day republic, was known in Romanian as "Moldova"). The principality became tributary to the Ottoman Empire during 16th century. Following the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812, it was annexed by Russia together with Budjak (Southern Bessarabia). At first, the Russians used the name "Gubernya of Moldova and Bessarabia", but later called it simply Bessarabia. The western part of Moldavia remained an autonomous principality and united with Walachia to form the Old Kingdom of Romania in 1859. 1859] At the end of World War I, Bessarabia proclaimed independence from Russia in 1918, and united with the Kingdom of Romania the same year. The Soviet Union invaded Bessarabia in June 1940 in an agreement with Germany expressed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and though forced out again in 1941, Soviet troops re-occupied and annexed the area in August 1944. Soviet rule brought a harsh de-nationalization policy. The southern and northern parts (which had some Slavic and Turkic minorities) were transferred to Ukraine. At the same time, Transnistria (where, at that time, ethnic Romanians outnumbered Slavs) was joined to the remainder to form the "Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic", identical in territory to present-day Moldova. Under Stalin, ethnic Russians were brought into the new country, especially into urbanized areas, while large numbers of ethnic Romanians were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The overall result was the destruction of Romanian elites and middle-classes, and their replacement with Soviet (mostly Slavic) elements. Along with the other peripheral Soviet republics, Moldova started to move towards independence from 1991 onwards; in August 1991, Moldova declared its independence and in December of that year became a member of the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States along with most of the former Soviet republics. At the end of that year, an ex-communist reformer, Mircea Snegur, won an election for the presidency. Four months later, the country achieved formal recognition as an independent state at the United Nations. The part of Moldova east of the Dniestr River, Transnistria—which is more heavily industrialized and is populated by a larger proportion of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians— claimed independence in 1991, fearing Moldovan unification with Romania. Russian and Ukrainian forces intervened on the Transnistrian side, and remain there. The OSCE is involved in negotiations between the Transnistrian leaders and Chişinău. A March 1994 referendum saw an overwhelming majority of voters favoring continued independence. In the 2001 elections a pro-Russian Communist party won majority of seats in the Parliament and appointed a Communist president, Vladimir Voronin. After few years in power relationships between Moldova and Russia deteriorated over the Transnistrian conflict. In the following election, held in 2005, the Communist party made 180 degree turn and was re-elected on a pro-Western platform, with Voronin re-elected to a second term as a president. During the 2005 parliamentary elections the Russian Federation tried to influence the election process by intensively favourable coverage of pro-Russian candidates in the Russian mass media and by organizing meetings and agitation campaigns using the Russian CIS-EMO organization (so-called “Elections Monitoring Organization”), which is not recognized internationally as an independent election observer. This organization was proven to have poor records from the previous Kyrgyzstan election. As a response to the security threat, Moldovan authorities denied entry to the Republic of Moldova for the members of the CIS-EMO organization. Some who nonetheless made their way into the Republic were found distributing leaflets and actively participating in the election campaign, despite not having a valid Moldovan passport or any proof of Moldovan citizenship or any permission from the election authority. These members were consequently deported from the country. This action angered the Russian side. As a consequence, Russian-Moldovan ties greatly weakened, and the nation is split between building ties with the West or with Russia. In 1992, Moldova was involved in a short-term war against Russian armed forces and Ukrainian Kazak units. Units of Kazaks (Ukrainian mercenaries) fought, supported by and alongside the Russian 14th Army. The Transnistrian war began with an attack of Russian mercenaries on the Moldovan town of Dubosari, situated on the eastern bank of the River Dniestr, but not loyal to the separatist regime. Since 1992, Russia has maintained a military occupation of the eastern regions of the Republic of Moldova. The separatist Transnistrian regime established in the occupied territory is undemocratic, and no rotation in political power has taken place in this area since 1992. The de facto Transnistrian government has enforced Russification, the denationalization of ethnic Ukrainians, and discrimination against Moldovans. In the summer of 2004, Transnistrian authorities forcibly closed six Moldovan schools from Tiraspol, Tighina/Bender, and Rîbniţa that used the Romanian language in the Latin alphabet. 3,400 enrolled children were affected by this measure. Several teachers and parents who opposed the closures were arrested.

Ştefan cel Mare

Ştefan cel Mare ("Stephen the Great"), cousin of Vlad III Dracula, was the most important Prince of Moldavia. He was born around 1436, at Borzeşti, Bacău County, (now in Romania), and died at Suceava, Romania 2 July 1504. He ruled 47 years, from 14 April 1457 until his death. He is considered a national hero in Moldova and Romania.

Politics

Romania Main article: Politics of Moldova The unicameral Moldovan parliament, or Parlament, has 101 seats, and its members are elected by popular vote every 4 years. The parliament then elects a president, who functions as the head of state. The president appoints a prime minister as head of government who in turn assembles a cabinet, both subject to parliamentary approval.

2005 Parliamentary Elections:

- Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) (45.98% votes, 56 mandates)
- Electoral Bloc “Moldova Democrata” (BMD) (28.53% votes, 34 mandates)
- Christian Democratic Peoples Party (CDPP) (9.07% votes, 11 mandates)

2001 Parliamentary Elections:

- Communist Party (CP)(50.07% votes, 71 mandates)
- Electoral Bloc "Braghis Alliance" (BEAB) (13.36% votes, 19 mandates)
- Christian Democratic People's Party (CDPP) (8.24% votes, 11 mandates)

Administrative divisions

Christian Democratic People's Party (CDPP) Main article: Administrative divisions of Moldova Moldova is divided into 32 districts (raion, pl. raioane), 3 municipalities (Chişinău, Bălţi and Bender), two semi-autonomous regions (Găgăuzia and the breakaway region of Transnistria, whose status is still disputed). The districts are:

- Anenii Noi

- Basarabeasca

- Briceni

- Cahul

- Cantemir

- Călăraşi

- Căuşeni

- Cimişlia

- Criuleni

- Dondus,eni

- Drochia

- Dubăsari

- Edineţ

- Făleşti

- Floreşti

- Glodeni

- Hînceşti

- Ialoveni

- Leova

- Nisporeni

- Ocniţa

- Orhei

- Rezina

- Rîşcani

- Sîngerei

- Soroca

- Străşeni

- Şoldăneşti

- Ştefan Voda

- Taraclia

- Teleneşti

- Ungheni

As no other nation recognizes Transnistria, it is de jure a part of Moldova, although in reality it is not controlled by the Moldovan government.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Moldova The western border of Moldova is formed by the Prut river, which joins the Danube before flowing into the Black Sea. In the north-east, the Dniester is the main river, flowing through the country from north to south. The country is landlocked, even though it is very close to the Black Sea. While the northern part of the country is hilly, elevations never exceed 430 m (the highest point being the Dealul Bălăneşti). Moldova has a temperate continental climate, with warm summers, but mild winters. The country's main cities are the capital Chişinău, in the centre of the country, Tiraspol (in Transnistria), Bălţi and Bender. See List of cities in Moldova

Economy

List of cities in Moldova Main article: Economy of Moldova Moldova enjoys a favorable climate and good farmland but has no major mineral deposits. As a result, the economy depends heavily on agriculture, featuring fruits, vegetables, wine, and tobacco. Moldova must import all of its supplies of petroleum, coal, and natural gas, largely from Russia. Energy shortages contributed to sharp production declines after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. As part of an ambitious economic liberalization effort, Moldova introduced a convertible currency, freed all prices, stopped issuing preferential credits to state enterprises, backed steady land privatization, removed export controls, and freed interest rates. The government entered into agreements with the World Bank and the IMF to promote growth. Recent trends indicate that the communist government intends to reverse some of these policies, and recollectivise land while placing more restrictions on private business. The economy returned to positive growth, of 2.1% in 2000 and 6.1% in 2001. Growth remained strong in 2002, in part because of the reforms and because of starting from a small base. Further liberalization is in doubt because of strong political forces backing government controls. The economy remains vulnerable to higher fuel prices, poor agricultural weather, and the skepticism of foreign investors. Moldova remains the poorest country in Europe in terms of GDP per capita: 1,900 USD PPP (2005) or 590 USD nominal (2005).

Demographics

2005

Ethnic composition

(according to the 2004 census)
- Moldovans: 76.1%
- Romanians: 2.1%
- Ukrainians: 8.4%
- Russians: 5.8%
- Gagauz: 4.4%
- Bulgarians: 1.9%
- Others: 1.3%

About 2004 census

:According to a May 19 2005 article in "Moldova Azi" news agency (see ), a group of international census experts described the Moldovan census as "generally conducted in a professional manner", while remarking that that "a few topics… were potentially more problematic". Among the problematic topics: :#The census includes at least some Moldovans who had been living abroad over one year at the time of the census. :#The precision of numbers about nationality/ethnicity and language was questioned. Some enumerators apparently encouraged respondents to declare that they were "Moldovan" rather than "Romanian", and even within a single family there may have been confusion about these terms. :With respect to these matters, especially the latter, the expert group recommended that the Moldovan National Bureau of Statistics carry out an evaluation study, offered their assistance in doing so, and indicated their intention of further studying the matter themselves. Bulgarians

Religions

(2000)
- Eastern Orthodox Christian 98%
- Jewish 1.5%
- Baptist and other 0.5%

Language

The official language is Moldovan; this is by all accounts a form of Daco-Romanian, and is essentially the same as Romanian. There is no particular linguistic break at the Prut River, which divides Moldova from Romania. In formal use, the languages are identical except for minor orthographical issues (the Moldovans write î in some contexts where Romanians would use â; this same form used to be normal in Romania). There is, however, some regional variation, as might be found within any linguistic territory, and the common speech of Chişinau or Transnistria can be distinguished from the speech of Iaşi, a Romanian city that is also part of the former Principality of Moldavia. A significant minority speaks native Russian, and there are more Slavicisms in common speech in Moldova than in common speech in Romania. Nonetheless, Moldovans are generally aware when they are using a word of Slavic origin not found in common Romanian, and are capable of choosing whether or not to use these words in a particular context.

Information Technologies and Telecommunications

In 2004, the investments volume on the telecommunications and information market in the Republic of Moldova increased by 30,1% in comparison with 2003, achieving 825, 3 million lei (65,5 million dollars by the exchange rate of the NMB). The representatives of the National Agency for Telecommunications and Information Regulation communicated that 451 million lei (35,9 million dollars) were invested in the field of fixed telephone communication. The investments constituted 330 million lei (26,2 million dollars) in the field of mobile telephony, 24,2 million lei (1,9 million dollars) in the field of Internet services, 19,1 million lei (1,5 million dollars) in the field of cable television services. The essential increase in the amount of 163 million lei (12,9 million dollars) has been achieved in the field of mobile telephony. In comparison with 2003, the investments in this sector doubled practically. An insignificant increase was registered at the other market segments, but the investments volume remained the same in the field of fixed telephone communication. The specialists of the National Agency for Telecommunications and Information Regulation mentioned that dynamic of investments done in 2003-2004 years in the development of telecommunication and information of the Republic of Moldova shows that in 2005 their volume would exceed the level of the last year. In their opinion, this increase will be determined by the investments of the national operator of the stationary telephone communications of the Joint-Stock Company “Moldtelecom” for the implementation of the technology CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), by the investments of the operators of mobile telephony “Voxtel” and “Moldcell” in the development of infrastructure, also by means orientated to the extension and improvement of access services to Internet by new broadband technologies. broadband technologies]

Culture

Main article: Culture of Moldova Article: Culture of Moldova/ Arts
- List of Moldovans
- Music of Moldova

Tourism in Moldova

The Republic of Moldova is a beautiful small country, situated in the Southeast part of Europe, neighboring Romania to the West and Ukraine to the East. This piece of land boasts a rich history, abundant in dramatic and agitated events.

Miscellaneous topics

- Foreign relations of Moldova
- Transportation in Moldova
- Communications in Moldova
- Internal security in Moldova
- Military of Moldova
- Coat of Arms of Moldova
- Crime in Moldova
- Principality of Moldavia
- Moldova, an adjacent region of Romania.
- Anti-Romanian discrimination
- Russification
- Coat of Arms of Moldova
- Communications in Moldova
- Crime in Moldova

Maps

- [http://www.allmoldova.com/moldova.php Map of Moldova]
- [http://www.allmoldova.com/map.php?lang=en Map of Chisinau]
- [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/ Maps of Moldova (political, ethnic, etc...)] plus those of other former Soviet Republics

Gallery

image:Chisinau Center.jpg|Triumphal Arc - Center of Chisinau, Chişinău image:Chi gates.jpg|Gates of Chişinău, Chişinău Image:Moldavian orthodox church.jpg|Moldavian Orthodox church

External links

- [http://e-gov.moldova.md/moldova(en).nsf Official governmental site]
- [http://www.parlament.md/en.html Official web site of the Parliament]
- [http://www.mfa.md/ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
- [http://www.elections2005.md/ Election in Moldava]

Profiles

- [http://foia.state.gov/MMS/postrpt/pr_view_all.asp?CntryID=100 U.S. Department of State Post Reports - Moldova]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/md.html CIA - The World Factbook - Moldova]
- [http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc.easteurope.moldovaoverview Peace Corps in Moldova]
- [http://www.ecmimoldova.org ECMI - Information about Minority Issues in Moldova]

News portals

- [http://www.azi.md/en.html Moldova Azi: News from Moldova]
- [http://www.basa.md/ BASA-press News Agency]
- [http://www.interlic.md/index.php?lang=eng Interlic News Agency]
- [http://www.moldova.org/index/eng/ Moldova.org]

Tourism

- [http://www.turism.md/eng Official site of the Department of Tourism]

Others

- [http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/10/c28fad55-44c3-4fcc-b3dc-73e93e4d8119.html Moldova: Young Women From Rural Areas Vulnerable To Human Trafficking]

References

- [http://www.statistica.md/recensamint/Rezultatele_prel_recens_ro.zip 2004 census results] (ZIP file, in Romanian)

Notes

[http://azi.md/news?ID=34282 Experts Offering to Consult the National Statistics Bureau in Evaluation of the Census Data], Moldova Azi, May 19, 2005, story attributed to AP Flux. Retrieved October 11, 2005. Moldova zh-min-nan:Moldova als:Moldawien ko:몰도바 ja:モルドバ th:ประเทศมอลโดวา fiu-vro:Moldova Vabariik'

Europe

:This article is about the continent. For other meanings, see Europe (disambiguation). Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula or subcontinent, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. It is conventionally considered a continent, which, in this case, is more of a cultural distinction than a geographic one. It is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the south by the Mediterranean and Black Seas and the Caucasus. Europe's boundary to the east is vague, but has traditionally been given as the Ural Mountains and Caspian Sea to the southeast: the Urals are considered by most to be a geographical and tectonic landmark separating Asia from Europe. :See also Continent, Bicontinental country, and Table of European territories and regions. Table of European territories and regions Table of European territories and regions Europe is the world's second-smallest continent in terms of area, covering around 10,790,000 km² (4,170,000 sq mi) or 2.1% of the Earth's surface, and is only larger than Australia. In terms of population, it is the third-largest continent (Asia and Africa are larger) with a population of more than 700,000,000, or about 11% of the world's population.

Etymology

Africa.]] In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess who was abducted by Zeus in bull form and taken to the island of Crete, where she gave birth to Minos. For Homer, Europé (Greek: Ευρωπη; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation. Later Europa stood for mainland Greece, and by 500 BC its meaning had been extended to lands to the north. The Greek term Europe has been derived from Greek words meaning broad (eurys) and face (ops) -- broad having been an epitheton of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion; see Prithvi (Plataia). A minority, however, suggest this Greek popular etymology is really based on a Semitic word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "sunset" (see also Erebus). From the Middle Eastern vantagepoint, the sun does set over Europe, the lands to the west. Likewise, Asia is sometimes thought to have derived from the Akkadian word asu, meaning "sunrise", and is the land to the east from a Mesopotamian perspective.

History

Europe has a long history of cultural and economic achievement, starting as far back as the Palaeolithic, although this is true for the rest of the Old World as well. The recent discovery at Monte Poggiolo, Italy, of thousands of hand-shaped stones, tentatively carbon-dated to 800,000 years ago, may prove to be of particular importance. The origins of Western democratic and individualistic culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece, though numerous other distinct influences, in particular Christianity, can also be credited with the spread of concepts like egalitarianism and universality of law. The Roman Empire divided the continent along the Rhine and Danube for several centuries. Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of changes arising from what is known as the Age of Migrations. That period has been known as the "Dark Ages" to Renaissance thinkers. During this time, isolated monastic communities in Ireland and elsewhere carefully safeguarded and compiled written knowledge accumulated previously. The Renaissance and the New Monarchs marked the start of a period of discovery, exploration, and increase in scientific knowledge. In the 15th century Portugal opened the age of discoveries, soon followed by Spain. They were later joined by France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. After the age of discovery, the ideas of democracy took hold in Europe. Struggles for independence arose, most notably in France during the period known as the French Revolution. This led to vast upheaval in Europe as these revolutionary ideas propagated across the continent. The rise of democracy led to increased tensions within Europe on top of the tensions already existing due to competition within the New World. The most famous of these conflicts was when Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power and set out on a conquest, forming a new French empire that soon collapsed. After these conquests Europe stabilised, but the old foundations were already beginning to crumble. The Industrial Revolution started in the United Kingdom in the late 18th century, leading to a move away from agriculture, much greater general prosperity and a corresponding increase in population. Many of the states in Europe took their present form in the aftermath of World War I. From the end of World War II through the end of the Cold War, Europe was divided into two major political and economic blocks: Communist nations in Eastern Europe and capitalist countries in Western Europe. Around 1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Eastern bloc disintegrated.

Geography and extent

Eastern bloc Geographically Europe is a part of the larger landmass known as Eurasia. The continent begins at the Ural Mountains in Russia, which define Europe's eastern boundary with Asia. The southeast bound