Moldavian IDN Domains

The Moldovian language is also known as Moldovan. It is considered to be a Romanian language and is spoken in the Republic of Moldova. However, it is sometimes considered as independent of Romanian. The reason for this comes from a Soviet policy which noted the difference between Moldovans and Romanians. The latest legal proceedings of the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared that the term "Romanian" is held over "Moldovan." It recognizes both as the same language. Moldovan is recognized as an official language of a region named Transnistria, which broke away from Moldova.

The varying forms of Romanian which are spoken in Moldova are known as the Moldavian sub-dialects. These are also spoken in northeastern Romania. Both Romania and Moldova use the same written standard which is called Cyrillic. The alphabet of Moldovan is the same as Romanian. It is derived from Latin.

It is difficult to tabulate a precise number for the speakers of Moldovan as their native language, given its difficult categorizations as part of or separate from Romanian. However, in a census run in 2004, 16.5% out of the 3,383,332 people living in Moldova declared Romanian as their native language, while 60% declared Moldovan to be their native language. Therefore, 2,029,999 Moldovans consider Moldovan to be their native language.