Moldovan (also Moldavian; limba moldoveneasc, is one of the names of the Romanian language as spoken in the Republic of Moldova,

where it is an official language. The variety of Romanian spoken in Moldova is the Moldavian subdialect, which is also spoken in northeastern Romania. The two countries share the same literary standard. Written in Cyrillic, Moldovan is also the name of one of three official languages of the breakaway Moldovan territory of Transnistria. The Constitution of Moldova (Title I, Article 13) states that the Moldovan language is the official language of the country. In the Declaration of Independence of Moldova, the state language is called Romanian. The 1989 Language Law that proclaimed it the state language of Moldova, speaks in the preamble of a "Moldovan-Romanian linguistic identity". After political debate over the issue became inflamed again in the early 2000s, a group of Romanian linguists adopted a resolution stating that promotion of the notion of Moldovan language is an antiscientific campaign. History and politics

1999 Moldovan stamp celebrating 10 years since reverting to the Latin script The Romanian Literature Museum, Chiinu The history of the Moldovan language refers to the historical evolution of the glottonym Moldavian/Moldovan in Moldova and beyond, which is closely tied to the region's political status, with long periods of rule by Russia and the Soviet Union influencing the language's name and (when Cyrillic script was in use) orthography. From a linguistic perspective, this term is an alternative name for the varieties of the Romanian language spoken in the Republic of Moldova (see History of the Romanian language). Before 1918 and also after the union of Bessarabia with Romania, it was not obvious nor universally accepted that Moldovans and the Romanians formed a single ethnic group Missing out all the important moments in the creation of a pan-Romanian national consciousness, the Moldovan peasants referred to themselves and their language as "Moldovan" also in the period between the wars. This caused reactions from pan-Romanian nationalists The concept of the distinction of Moldovan from Romanian was explicitly stated only in the early 20th century, and accompanied the raising of national awareness among Moldovans, and the Soviet placing heavy emphasis on Moldavians vs Romanians as a reaction to this awareness. Major recent developments include the passing to a Latin script from Cyrillic in 1989 and several changes in the statutory name of the language used in Moldova. At one point of particular confusion about identity in the 1990s, all references to geography in the name of the language were dropped, and it was officially known simply as limba de stat - "the state language".

Moldovan was assigned the code mo in ISO 639-1 and code mol in ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3[12] but these have been deprecated in November 2008, leaving ro and ron (639-2/T) and rum (6392/B) the current language identifiers to be used for the variant of the Romanian language also known as Moldavian and Moldovan in English, the ISO 639-2 Registration Authority said in the motivation of the decision Capital (and largest city) Chiinu 1 470N 2855E / 47N 28.917E Official language(s) Moldovan (Romanian) Recognised regional languages Gagauz, Russian, and Ukrainian Ethnic groups (2004) 75.8% Moldovans2, 8.3% Ukrainians, 5.9% Russians, 4.4% Gagauzes, 2.2% Romanians2, 1.9% Bulgarians, [1] 1.5% others and unspecified (excl. Transnistria) Demonym Moldovan, Moldavian Government Parliamentary republic President Nicolae Timofti - Prime Minister Vlad Filat - President of the Parliament Marian Lupu The Netherlands The Netherlands is a country in Western Europe. More than 16 million people live there. To the north and west of the Netherlands is the North Sea. To the east is the country Germany and to the south is the country Belgium. The Netherlands is one of the countries that started the European Union. People who live in the Netherlands are called "Dutch". The language of the Netherlands is also called Dutch. The main capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam. This however, is not the place where the government is seated. The House of Representatives (in Dutch: 'Tweede kamer') is in The Hague. Politics The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. That means the country has a king or queen, but the real power is in hands of a parliament, chosen by the Dutch people. All Dutch people who are 18 or older are allowed to vote. There are elections every four years. After the elections, parties that have had a majority of the votes create a cabinet. The cabinet consists of a prime minister and several other ministers. History At the end of the Middle Ages the dukes of Burgundy, a country that is now part of France, united seventeen areas. Those areas were called the Netherlands. When the daughter of a duke married the king of Spain, the Netherlands became part of Spain. In the 16th century many Dutch

people became Protestant. The king of Spain did not like it, he wanted all Dutch to be Roman Catholic. He decided that all Protestants should be killed. Of course the Dutch people did not like this, and in 1568 they started a war against Spain. The war lasted until 1648, therefore it is called the Eighty Years' War. An important leader of the Dutch in this war was Willem van Oranje (Willem of orange) also called Willem the Silent. In 1648 the Netherlands and Spain signed peace. The Dutch people were allowed to keep all the areas they conquered. The part of the Netherlands that was not conquered by the Dutch stayed part of Spain. Later this part became the country Belgium. When the Netherlands became independent, it was a very special country. That time almost all countries in Europe were ruled by a king, but the Netherlands was not. The Netherlands was made up of seven provinces, that were ruled by the big cities.The cities where ruled by the municipality which consisted from rich civilians. Together those provinces were ruled by a stadtholder, although he was a very powerful man compared to the kings of other European countries he had much less power. In the 17th century the Netherlands was the richest and one of the most powerful countries in the world. Therefore the Dutch call the 17th century the Golden Age. They had possessions all around the world. The most important possession were the East Indies, a country that is now called Indonesia. The Dutch also founded the city New York, but they called it New Amsterdam. The area was known to Native Americans as Manhattan, and in 1628 they sold it to the Dutch for 60 gilder. The Netherlands often fought wars against other European countries, especially against England. Michiel de Ruyter, a Dutch admiral, became a Dutch hero when he defeated the English navy close to London. In the 18th century the Netherlands became poorer. Many people thought this was the fault of the stadtholders. Many thought they had too much power and wanted them to get away. In 1789 the French people deposed their king. French armies attacked other countries to depose their leaders too. In 1795 they attacked the Netherlands. Stadtholder William V had to flee to England. The Netherlands were renamed to Batavian Republic and became a democracy. But the French were not content with the Dutch ruler, so in 1806 the French emperor Napoleon made his brother Louis Bonaparte king of the Netherlands. Louis became popular in the Netherlands, but the emperor was again not content with him, so in 1810 the Netherlands became a part of France. In 1815 Napoleon was defeated, and the Netherlands became independent again. The rulers of European countries thought it was a good idea to make the Netherlands stronger, to make them able to resist another French invasion. Therefore Belgium and Luxembourg were added to the Netherlands. William I, the son of stadtholder William V, became king. The Belgians were not happy with the Dutch king. In 1830 they revolted. William sent an army. He was much more powerful then the Belgians but after ten days the French sent an army to support them. In 1831 the Belgians chose their own king and Belgium became an independent country. Some people thought the Dutch king had too much power. They wanted to give him less power and vote for the government themselves. In 1848 there were violent revolts against the kings of many European countries. The Dutch king was afraid the same would happen in the Netherlands. Therefore he allowed Johan Rudolf Thorbecke to write a constitution. From then on people were

allowed to vote. At first only rich men were allowed to vote. From 1919 on everyone was allowed to vote. In World War I, the Netherlands did not fight. The Dutch wanted to stay neutral in World War II as well, but in 1940 the country was invaded and occupied by Germany. Just like in other countries they had occupied, the Germans started to kill Jews. Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who lived in the Netherlands. She died in a German concentration camp. When she and her family were hiding for the Germans, she wrote a diary. After the war her diary became very famous. In 1944 the American, Canadian, Polish and British armies liberated the south of the Netherlands from the Germans. They wanted to cross the Rhine river to liberate the rest of the country, but they were defeated by the Germans. It took until May 1945 before the entire country was liberated. During the five years of German occupation, 250,000 people had died in the Netherlands. Shortly after the war, Indonesia declared its independence. The Dutch sent soldiers to Indonesia. During the war the Dutch realized how it is to be occupied by another country, so some people thought the Dutch should not do the same to the Indonesians. After other countries, including the United States, told the Dutch to leave Indonesia, they finally did so (1949). After the war the Netherlands became one of the richest countries in the world. In 2004 the United Nations said that the Netherlands was the 5th best country to live in.