Bucharest, September 1, 2023 – Romanian Language Day was celebrated on Thursday by the Romanian Academy and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova “in a special way, as it has not been in the more than 30 years since there have been two independent Romanian states”, said the president of the Romanian Academy, Ioan-Aurel Pop, at the opening of the event in Bucharest.
The president of the Romanian Academy said that “officially and diplomatically” they talk about the state of the Republic of Moldova and the Moldovan people, but “the truth has come out including from an official and diplomatic point of view and the language, also official of the two countries, is called Romanian language”.
“Deep down we know that we are not two distinct peoples, but two branches of the same people forced by history to follow parallel and sometimes different paths. But these paths, I have the impression, are getting closer. If we were distinct peoples – a great man, born in Cogâlnic, would not have become Prime Minister of Romania, nor president of the Romanian Academy, nor the Moldavian from Botoşani, the one who grew up on the hills and forests of Ipotesti, would have written that Romania is his country of glory, the country of longing. These two, like the chroniclers of the 17th century, like Dimitrie Cantemir, Creangă, Sadoveanu, like Vieru, always felt part of the Romanian people and bathed always in the purifying water called the Romanian language. Today we are separated by the Prut river, but let’s not forget that Milcov also separated the Romanians’ mountain branch from the Moldavian branch for centuries and that the barriers finally broke”, declared Ioan- Aurel Pop.
The President of the Romanian Academy stated that our way of reporting to the world through language “kept us alive as a people”.
“You can’t be Romanian if you don’t speak Romanian, but you can speak, write and read Romanian beautifully without being Romanian. The language remains our life, as a people, and there is no people in this world that does not value, care for and preserve its language, and the great languages all have a neat and standardized form, called the literary language”, said Ioan-Aurel Pop.
He mentioned that nowadays it is easier than in the past to “immerse yourself” in another language, which you call the “language of communication”.
“Obviously, these new languages spoken by the Romanians scattered around the world will never be like the language that comes from the mother, from the grandparents, from the grandparents and from the ancestors. We, who still stick to our place, we cultivated the language, standardized it, established a grammar for it and put it out into the world, because the main task of the Romanian Academy, since its establishment, was to standardize and protect the Romanian language”, said the president of the Romanian Academy.
“I like to say that the most important spiritual creation of the Romanian people is the Romanian language. Warm congratulations to all Romanians on the Day of Romanian Languages and a lot of progress in preserving, cultivating, defending and honoring the Romanian language”, he said, at the end of his speech, Ioan-Aurel Pop.
Ion Tighineanu, president of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, recalled that the Day of the Romanian Language is celebrated in a “special festive meeting organized by two sister academies”.
“Today’s meeting, August 31, 2023, is deeply symbolic and emblematic. As a result of the action plan approved on April 4, in the meeting of the presidium of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and the office of the presidium of the Romanian Academy, it was decided to jointly organize several activities, but, in my opinion, the most important and successful achievement is the joint festive meeting of the Romanian Academy and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova dedicated to the national holiday of the Romanian Language, as well as the opening of the World Congress of Eminescologists, reaching its 12th -th edition”, said Ion Tighineanu.
Romanian Language Day is celebrated simultaneously in the Aula of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest and in the Azurie Hall in Chisinau.
Romanian Language Day is celebrated every year on August 31, as a result of a legislative initiative approved by Parliament through Law no. 53/2013.
Romanian Language Day was established on the same date as the similar holiday established in 1990 in the Republic of Moldova under the name “Our Language”, in order to convey the message that the Romanian language is a language spoken not only within the borders of the country, but also beyond borders.
On August 31, 1989, the Chisinau Parliament voted the law that provided for the return in the Republic of Moldova to the Romanian language and the Latin script.
