| Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: italic=no|Limba noastră | |
| English Title: | 'Our Language' |
| Prefix: | National |
| Country: | Moldova |
| Composer: | Alexandru Cristea |
| Lyrics Date: | 1917 |
| Author: | Alexei Mateevici |
| Adopted: | 1995 |
| Predecessor: | "Deșteaptă-te, române!" |
| Sound: | Imnul Republicii Moldova US NAVY.ogg |
| Sound Title: | U.S. Navy Band instrumental rendition in F major |
"Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: italic=no|Limba noastră" (pronounced as /ro/), known in English as "Our Language", is the national anthem of Moldova.[1] It has been used since 1994 and was officially adopted on 22 July 1995.[2]
For a brief period of time in the early 1990s, the national anthem of Moldova was "Deșteaptă-te, române!", which was and remains the national anthem of Romania. The lyrics were written by Alexei Mateevici (1888–1917) a month before his death.[3] Mateevici contributed significantly to the national emancipation of Bessarabia. The music was composed by Alexandru Cristea.
The focus of "Limba noastră" is language, hence its namesake; in this case, the official language of Moldova, namely Romanian.
The Constitution of Moldova refers to the country's official language as Romanian, and similarly in December 2013, a decision of the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the Declaration of Independence takes precedence over the Constitution and that the state language is therefore Romanian.[4] In Transnistria and by older populations, however, the language is often referred to as Moldovan. Additionally, in Transnistria, the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet is still used, and the Russian language is spoken by a majority in the region.
The anthem calls for the people to revive the usage of their native language. The poem does not refer to the language by name; it is poetically called "our language".
"Limba noastră" is based on a 12-verse poem. For the officially-defined national anthem used today, the verses were selected and reorganised into 5 verses of 4 lines each; namely, the first, second, fifth, eighth and twelfth verses, respectively,[5] which are highlighted in bold.