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Moldovan alphabet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Moldovan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type: | Alphabet | |
| Languages: | Moldovan/Romanian | |
| Time period: | ca. 1930 - today | |
| Parent writing systems: | Phoenician alphabet Greek alphabet Glagolitic alphabet Cyrillic Moldovan |
|
| Sister writing systems: | Romanian Cyrillic alphabet | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Moldovan alphabet is a Cyrillic alphabet derived from the Russian alphabet and developed for the Romanian/Moldovan language in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
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The Moldovan alphabet was during the Stalinist era as a way to separate culturally the Moldovans of the Moldavian ASSR from the Romanians of Greater Romania. After the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia, it was the only official alphabet of the Moldavian SSR until 1989.
During the Soviet rule of Moldova, there were some requests to switch back to the Latin alphabet, which was seen "more suitable for the Romance core of the language." In 1965, the demands of the 3rd Congress of Writers of Soviet Moldavia were rejected by the leadership of the Communist Party, the replacement being deemed "contrary to the interests of the Moldavian people and does not reflect its aspirations and hopes".[1]
The Moldovan alphabet is still the official and the only accepted alphabet in Transnistria for this language. It is not the same Cyrillic alphabet used in Romania before 1860. That alphabet contained a number of letters such as Izhitsa, Fita and little Yus not found in Moldovan Cyrillic.
All but one of the letters of this alphabet can be found in the modern Russian alphabet, the exception being the character zhe (ж) with breve: Ӂ ӂ (U+04C1, U+04C2).
The following chart shows the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet compared with the Latin alphabet currently in use.
| Cyrillic letter: | Equates to Latin letter: | As employed in this context: | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| а | a | /a/ | |
| б | b | /b/ | |
| в | v | /v/ | |
| г | g, gh | gh used before i or e, elsewhere g | /g/ |
| д | d | /d/ | |
| е | e, ie | ie after a vowel or if it alternates with ia, elsewhere e | /e/, /je/ |
| ж | j | /ʒ/ | |
| ӂ | g | Before i and e | /dʒ/ |
| з | z | /z/ | |
| и | i, ii | ii used at end of word, i elsewhere | /i/ |
| й | i | before vowels | /j/ |
| к | c, ch | ch before i and e, c elsewhere | /k/ |
| л | l | /l/ | |
| м | m | /m/ | |
| н | n | /n/ | |
| о | o | /o/ | |
| п | p | /p/ | |
| р | r | /r/ | |
| с | s | /s/ | |
| т | t | /t/ | |
| у | u | /u/ | |
| ф | f | /f/ | |
| х | h | /h/ | |
| ц | ţ | /ts/ | |
| ч | c | Before i and e | /tʃ/ |
| ш | ş | /ʃ/ | |
| ы | â, î | â in middle of word, î at beginning and end of word | /ɨ/ |
| ь | i | At end of word (usually) | /ʲ/ (i.e. palatalization of preceding consonant) |
| э | ă | /ə/ | |
| ю | iu | /ju/, /ʲu/ | |
| я | ea, ia | ea after a consonant or е, ia elsewhere | /ja/, /ʲa/ |
- ^ Michael Bruchis. The Language Policy of the CPSU and the Linguistic Situation in Soviet Moldavia, in Soviet Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1. (Jan., 1984), pp. 118-119.