A Separate Moldovan Language? The Sociolinguistics of Moldova's Limba de Stat∗

∗This paper has benefited from the comments of two anonymous reviewers. Thanks are also in order for Suzanne Wertheim, the discussant of a version of this paper that I presented at the Association for the Study of Nationalities conference in New York in 2006. The fellow panelists and audience also provided useful feedback. Moreover, the fieldwork reported here was funded in part by grants from an AAUP University Research Grant in 2003 and an Advanced Research Fellowship from the US Department of State in 2001. Despite all this, any shortcomings of this paper are solely the author's.

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Notes

∗This paper has benefited from the comments of two anonymous reviewers. Thanks are also in order for Suzanne Wertheim, the discussant of a version of this paper that I presented at the Association for the Study of Nationalities conference in New York in 2006. The fellow panelists and audience also provided useful feedback. Moreover, the fieldwork reported here was funded in part by grants from an AAUP University Research Grant in 2003 and an Advanced Research Fellowship from the US Department of State in 2001. Despite all this, any shortcomings of this paper are solely the author's.

1. Irina Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, Nation Building, and Ethnic Struggle, 1918–1930 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), p. 98.

2. Nicolae Enciu, Basarabia în anii 1918–1940, Evolutie demographic economic (Chisinau: Civitas, 1998), pp. 30–37.

3. Indeed, many of the Romanian intellectuals and teachers fled Moldova ahead of Soviet occupation, effectively reducing literacy levels, in addition to the change of alphabet. See Gheorghe Negru, Politica etnolingvistic în R.S.S. Moldovenească (Chisinau: Prut International, 2000), p. 27.

4. Charles King, The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1999), pp. 78–79.

5. Michael Bruchis, One Step Back, Two Steps Forward: On the Language Policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the National Republics (Moldavian: A Look Back, a Survey, and Perspectives, 1924–1980) (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1982), pp. 45–69; King, op. cit., pp. 51–57.

6. Bruchis, op. cit., pp. 23–25; Ion Z. Dumeniuk, “Politica lingvistic a U.R.S.S. destinele limbilor nationale,” Limba Român, Vols 3–4, 1991, pp. 5–11; Lenore A. Grenoble, Language Policy in the Soviet Union (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003); Harald Haarmann, “Multilingualism and Ideology: The Historical Experiment of Soviet Language Politics,” European Journal of Intercultural Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1995, pp. 6–17; E. Glyn Lewis, Multilingualism in the Soviet Union: Aspects of Language Policy and its Implementation (The Hague: Mouton, 1972), pp. 67–70; Elena Schmitt, “A Historical Perspective on Language Policy in Russia,” in Douglas A. Kibbee, ed., Language Legislation and Linguistic Rights: Selected Proceedings of the Language Legislation and Linguistic Rights Conference, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, March, 1996 (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1998), pp. 196–205; Michael G. Smith, Language and Power in the Creation of the USSR: 1917–1953 (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1998).

7. Lewis, op. cit., pp. 71–73, among others.

8. Barry McLaughlin, “Multilingual Education: Theory East and West,” in Bernard Spolsky, ed., Language and Education in Multilingual Settings (San Diego, CA: College-Hill Press, 1986), pp. 32–52, at p. 40.

9. Charles King, “Ambivalence of Authenticity, or How the Moldovan Language was Made,” Slavic Review, Vol. 58, No. 1, 1999, pp. 117–142; among others.

10. Following Fishman's extension of Ferguson's notion of diglossia as a linguistic context in which one code or language is more prestigious, dominant, and useful in high functions than another. See note 12 below.

11. Bruchis, op. cit., pp. 71–96; Dennis Deletant, “Language Policy and Linguistic Trends in Soviet Moldavia,” in Michael Kirkwood, ed., Language Planning in the Soviet Union (New York: St. Martin's, 1990), pp. 189–216.

12. In the sense of Joshua Fishman's extension, see his “Bilingualism With and Without Diglossia; Diglossia With and Without Bilingualism,” Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 23, 1967, pp. 29–38; of Charles Ferguson's original definition of diglossia, see his “Diglossia,” Word, Vol. 15, 1959, pp. 325–340; this tendency in the MSSR is succinctly described by Igor Caşu, Politica National în Moldova Sovietic (1944–1989) (Chisinau: Cartdidact, 2000), pp. 103–107.

13. Lewis, op. cit., pp. 74–76, among others.

14. Personal communication with many of my students of both Russian and Moldovan ethnicity during my time as a teacher in Moldova, 1996–1998 and 2001–2002.

15. Isabelle Kreindler, “The Changing Status of Russian in the Soviet Union,” International Journal of Sociology of Language, Vol. 33, 1982, pp. 7–39, at pp. 16–21.

16. Lewis, op. cit., pp. 66–80.

17. King, The Moldovans, pp. 178–208.

18. This policy mirrors policies that were actually enforced in the Baltic states throughout the 1990s.

19. Steven D. Roper, “Regionalism in Moldova: The Case of Transnistria and Gagauzia,” in James Hughes and Gwendolyn Sasse, eds, Ethnicity and Territory in the Former Soviet Union: Regions of Conflict (London: Frank Cass, 2002), pp. 101–122, at pp. 106–110; Igor Munteanu, “Social Multipolarity and Political Violence,” in Pal Kolsto, ed., National Integration and Violent Conflict in Post-Soviet Societies: The Cases of Estonia and Moldova (Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2002), pp. 197–231, at pp. 215–218.

20. The official English translation of the constitution is available at the following URL: <http://www.ccrm.rol.md/const_en/210_en.html> (accessed 4 October 2004).

21. Elina Hornbacher, “Der Stellenwert der russischen Sprache in der Republik Moldau: Ein Beispiel für Spätfolgen sowjetischer Sprachenpolitik,” Osteuropa, No. 1, 2002, pp. 38–51, at p. 47.

22. Although trends in the data from my fieldwork in Moldova in 2001 and 2003 suggest that Romanian speakers are still learning Russian more often and more fluently than vice versa, there is also a trend toward greater polarization of native language groups, characterized by less frequent and less fluent individual bilingualism, particularly in the cities.

23. This trend is portrayed in much greater complexity by Vasile Dumbrava, Sprachkonflikt und Sprachbewusstsein in der Republik Moldova: Eine empirische Studie in gemischtethnischen Familien (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004).

24. There is much research under the subfield of language planning that clearly illustrates this. A classic study in the subfield is Einar Haugen, Language Conflict and Language Planning: The Case of Modern Norwegian (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966).

25. Klaus Heitmann, Limba şi politica în Republica Moldova (Chisinau: ARC, 1998), pp. 71–83.

26. See note 13 above.

27. J. Harwood, H. Giles and R. Y. Bourhis, “The Genesis of Vitality Theory: Historical Patterns and Discoursal Dimensions,” International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Vol. 108, 1994, pp. 167–206.

28. See excellent discussions of other multilingual European contexts: Kathryn Woolard, Double Talk: Bilingualism and the Politics of Ethnicity in Catalonia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989) and Alexandra Jaffe, Ideologies in Action: Language Politics in Corsica (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1999).

29. See pp. 62–64 in Charles King, “Marking Time in the Middle Ground: Contested Identities and Moldovan Foreign Policy,” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 19, 2003, pp 60–83.

30. For a detailed discussion of how this school crisis fits into educational policy in the region, see Steven D. Roper, “The Politicization of Education: Identity Formation in Moldova and Transnistria,” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol. 38, 2005, pp. 501–514.

31. The author learned of many of the developments detailed in this section of the article through personal communications with friends and colleagues in Moldova and through the online digest of Moldovan news sources: Moldova Azi, <http://www.azi.md/> (accessed regularly for this article 3 February 2004 through 28 January 2005).

32. “Elevii de la scolile moldovenesti sunt de parere ca doar presedintele Rusiei poate pune capat tuturor faradelegilor comise de regimul smirnovist de la Tiraspol,” Moldova Azi, Info-Prim, 30 July 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30212/Ro> (accessed 4 August 2004).

33. “Militieni transnistreni au luat cu asalt cladirea liceului romanesc din Ribnita,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 29 July 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30192/Ro> (accessed 4 August 2004).

34. “Chisinaul si Tiraspolul au inceput sa aplice masuri care sint calificate drept o blocada reciproca,” Moldova Azi, InfoTag, 2 August 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30235/Ro> (accessed 4 August 2004).

35. “Cinci angajati ai scolii internat din Tighina s-au concediat,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 4 August 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30278/Ro> (accessed 4 August 2004).

36. “Elevii liceului romanesc din Ribnita si ai scolii romanesti din Tiraspol nu pot incepe noul an scolar,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 1 September 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30638/Ro> (accessed 2 September 2004).

37. “Over 1,000 Students from Romanian-Language Schools in Transnistria Still Unable to Attend Classes,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 14 September 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30832/En> (accessed 14 September 2004).

38. “Romanian-Language Lycees in Tighina Back to Normal, Schools in Ribnita and Tiraspol Still Face Persecutions,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 21 September 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/30936/En> (accessed 21 September 2004).

39. Seminal works in this subfield include Joshua Fishman, Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1972), R. B. LePage and Andree Tabouret-Keller, Acts of Identity: Creole-Based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), and John Edwards, Language, Society and Identity (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985).

40. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991 [1983]).

41. More complete treatment of these data will be forthcoming in other publications by the author. Discussion is necessarily limited by space here.

42. Initially developed by Lambert, Hodgson, Gardner and Fillenbaum, “Evaluative Reactions to Spoken Language,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. 60, 1960, pp. 44–51; but later modified in many ways and often criticized, particularly for relying on an overly simplistic and static notion of attitudes.

43. King, The Moldovans, pp. 112–114.

44. Indeed, the results of the 2004 national census (www.statistica.md) indicate that the vast majority of Moldovans still identify their language as Moldovan, rather than Romanian. It should be noted, however, that census results on language issues are notoriously unreliable, often being skewed by indelicate survey items and politically influenced responses.

45. “Comitetul Helsinki afirma ca aproximativ 50 de scoli din Transnistria doresc sa studieze in limba romana,” Moldova Azi, Basa-Press, 2 November 2004, <http://www.azi.md/print/31550/Ro> (accessed 20 January 2005).