Moldovan language

Moldovan (also Moldavian; limba moldovenească, or лимба молдовеняскэ in Moldovan Cyrillic) is one of the two names of the Romanian language in the Republic of Moldova, prescribed by the Article 13 of the current constitution; the other name, recognized by the Declaration of Independence of Moldova and the Constitutional Court, is "Romanian".

At the official level, the Constitutional Court interpreted in 2013 that the Article 13 of the current constitution is superseded by the Declaration of Independence, thus giving official status to the language named as 'Romanian.'

The language of the Moldovans has been historically identified by both terms, with "Moldovan" being the only one allowed in official use during the years of domination by the Soviet Union, in the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. Soviet policy emphasized distinctions between Moldovans and Romanians due to their different histories. Its resolution declared Moldovan a distinct language independent of Romanian. Since the reintroduction of the Latin script in 1989, the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Moldova identified the official language as "Romanian". The 1994 Constitution provided official status only to "Moldovan".

The status of the official language was further legislated in the early 2000s. The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted a law defining "Moldovan" and "Romanian" as designations for the same language (). In 2013 the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the name "Romanian," as used in the Declaration of Independence to identify the official language, prevails over the name "Moldovan," given in the Article 13. The breakaway region of Transnistria continues to recognize "Moldovan" as one of its official languages, along with Russian and Ukrainian.

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