Romanian language’s right to normality

The Romanian Language House became on Saturday too small as it housed many writers, professors and linguists, who came together to participate in a symposium themed “The Romanian Language in Moldova. Right to Normality”. The necessity of formulating legislative documents and creating a special department that would protect and promote Romanian was one of the conclusions reached by the linguists, Info-Prim Neo reports. Publicist Alexandru Bantos voiced hope that the situation of the Romanian language in Moldova will change following the latest political developments in the country. “Today, after 20 years, we have a feeling of uneasiness and spiritual failure. What is happening now in Chisinau gives us hope that we will move to a new, better stage,” he said. Academician Mihai Cimpoi has told Info-Prim Neo that though the social and linguistic situation after 1989 has changed, the Romanian language at the state level was annihilated. Even the National Language Day was changed, being practically replaced with the Wine Day, the Beer Festival. Though Romanian was rehabilitated in the education system, actions were taken to introduce by force the so-called Moldovan language, to change the textbooks, to promote notions of Moldovan statehood. This made our intellectuals protest and revolt. However, the Romanian language is spoken nicely, but on the street we can still hear Rusizms. A lot of work is yet to be done to restore Romanian’s status of official language as the language is the house of the people as the great poet Eminescu said. We must fight for the purity of the language and keep it as the Germans or the French do through the agency of special institutions. We should also restore the Romanian Language Department and convince the people to speak with love and respect, Cimpoi said. “20 years is not enough to redress the situation created after about two centuries of diabolic regime during which they tried to mutilate and change us. Today the Romanian language has a new quality. The status of the holiday we mark on August 31, which is disputed by a part of the people as they say that nobody has a language day, points to a problem because the Romanian Language remains a problem in its native country. The government has never paid enough attention to this problem. We hope that now we will have a government that will at least not hinder us from recovering,” said poet Iulian Filip. “It is a holiday that must be celebrated each day because nowadays we speak a defective language. It should be protected at governmental level as it is a beautiful language. I think that all those that love Romanian will celebrate it on August 31 as it must be loved like a child, looked after and enriched every day. We are Romanians with a nice Romanian language,” actor Sandu Aristin stated for the Agency. This year on August 31, it is 20 years of the introduction of Romanian as the official language and the reintroduction of the Latin script.