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Moldovan language ("Limba moldovenească", ISO 639 codes: mol, mo), the official language of Moldova is simply Romanian language renamed due to political reasons, in an attempt to fight what the Moldovan government calls "Romanian expansionism".

Until 1940, when Moldova was a part of Romania, there was no language called Moldovan, the language spoken in this region was Romanian, but after USSR occupied this teritory, the language was renamed in the attempt to sever all ties with Romania and to justify the occupation. Even the Latin alphabet was changed to Cyrillic alphabet, this was the first time in history that a Romance language was officially written with Cyrillic. Also, during the Soviet rule, Romanian speakers were encouraged to switch to the Russian language, this being a prerequisite for higher education, social status and political power.

In 1989, Moldovan was declared the official language of Moldova and the Romanian version of the Latin alphabet was restored.

After the independence of Moldova, in 1991, the constitution that followed, aknowledge Moldovan as the official language. In 2002 the communist government of Moldova gave Russian the same privileges as to Moldovan and it was decided to be a mandatory foreign language in schools.

In 2003, a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary was published, suggesting that the two countries speak different languages, although the linguists members of the Romanian Academy declared that all the Moldovian words are also Romanian words. Even in Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Bărbuţă, described the dictionary as an "absurdity", serving political purposes.