Our Romanian Language National Holiday marked in Moldova

Chisinau, 31 August /MOLDPRES/ - The Our Romanian Language National Holiday is marked in Moldova, as well as in Romania today. The Romanian Language Day has been celebrated since 1990.  

Following the requests by those about 750,000 participants in the Great National Assembly in Chisinau, which took place on 27 August 1989, the Supreme Soviet (parliament) of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic (RSSM) on 31 August 1989 adopted the Law, which decreed the Moldovan language as state language. At the same time, another law stipulated the giving up of the Cyrillic script and the return to the Latin script, with both legislative acts explicitly highlighting the fact that the Moldovan language is identical with the Romanian language. Next year, on 23 June 1990, Moldova’s parliament established the day of 31 August as the Our Romanian Language National Holiday and in 1994, the name of the holiday was changed into Our Language.  

Nevertheless, the holiday continued to remain as Romanian Language Day, as the role of the Romanian language as state language was laid down in the Declaration of Independence, adopted on 27 August 1991. Thus, in 2013, the Constitutional Court established that the Declaration of Independence prevails over the Constitution; therefore, the name of the state language is the one from the Declaration of Independence, i.e., the Romanian language. In 2023, the country’s parliament carried this decision through, by introducing in the Constitution the fact that the state language of Moldova is the Romanian language.    

According to the most complete catalogue of languages of the world, Ethnologue, there were 7,111 languages by 2020. Taking into account the globalization, the number of the living languages (constantly used in communication) decreases year after year and two languages disappear each month. Formerly, there were from 7,000 to 8,000 independent languages. Presently, more than 6,000 languages known in the world are spoken by a quite small number of people. A half of the modern languages are spoken by less than 10,000 people and one of four languages has less than 1,000 native speakers. To survive, the languages need our support, interest and faithfulness.     

According to statistics, the Romanian language is spoken by about 28 million people all over the world; the Romanian language is taught in schools from 43 countries. If to speak about the area of spiritual significances, the Romanian language is one of those five languages in which religious services are held at the Holy Mount Athos.  

The Romanian language Day is celebrated on 31 August in Romania as well. It was established symbolically on the same day with the similar holiday established in Moldova in 1990, namely in order to convey the message that the Romanian language is the language spoken on both banks of the Prut river.