Valentin Mandacanu turns 80 today

Linguist, writer and translator Valentin Mandacanu celebrates his 80th birthday today. Acting President Mihai Ghimpu signed a decree to confer the Order of the Republic on him, for special merits in discovering the scientific truth and promoting the national spiritual values and for prodigious literary output. If going from the beginning, Valentin Mandacanu would cover the same path and struggle for reinstating the Romanian language and enlarging the social functions of the mother tongue, Valentin Mandacanu stated for Info-Prim Neo. Valentin Mandacanu cited the famous scientist Eugen Coseriu, who said that “a literary language has its own norms. Do not deviate from the norms. Any deviation leads to another language.” “We do not need another language than the Romanian one. I hope it will have a long life,” Valentin Mandacanu said. “I have now written three books that are not yet fully ready. I hope I will manage to finish them.” Valentin Mandacanu's article “The Raiment of Our Being” that appeared in 1988 practically sparked the national liberation movement, the struggle for identity and the return to the Romanian language and Latin script. In 1991, being a member of Moldova's first democratic Parliament, Valentin Mandacanu signed the Declaration of Independence. He is a citizenry of honor of Chisinau.