I nearly fell from the chair when spotting Moldavian language in the PRO language support list... Moldavian does not exist, it is Romanian that is spoken and written in Moldavia. The term Moldavian was introduced by Soviet occupation in 1948, when forcing the former Romanian territories to cut also all cultural ties with Romania, by forcing the switch from Latin to Cyrillic alphabet, and thus, inventing a 'new' language. This term is currenty used in political context and for political reasons. The Cyrillic-script Moldavian language was abolished in 1989 when Moldova [Moldavia] claimed its independence from USSR. Hey, shouldn't FontShop be a source of correct information?

But if you say the term Moldavian was introduced by Soviet occupation in 1948, this means it does exist in some way, as language is linked to culture. The same can be said about Flemish. Linguistically it is the same language as Dutch, just like English and American, yet when selecting a dubbed version on a DVD you have to choose between Dutch and Flemish. So even it were a artificial language as you claim, it does exist in the perception of people. Wikipedia acknowledges it as you can read on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Romanian_language and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldovan_language. So -- politics aside -- I reckon FontShop is indeed a source of correct information. ;)

If that is so, why isn't American and Canadian in the language support?

Frankly I don't know, I'm not a linguist. All I can say is that Canadian is not to be found on Wikipedia; I'm not sure what's the deal with American. Furthermore you can read on Languagechat.com that "in the bookshops, a Moldovan-Romanian dictionary (the equivalent of an English-American dictionary) has become a bestseller, though as a curiosity rather than as an academic work." http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001538.php

Yves, you say 'But if you say the term Moldavian was introduced by Soviet occupation in 1948, this means it does exist in some way, as language is linked to culture.' I go on with reminding, that 1948 Moldavian was Cyrillic script-based Romanian language, called Moldavian. Is Meta Serif Pro covering that Cyrillic-based language? Nope. So, as you say - politics aside - either FontShop lists also Canadian-English, American-English, Flemish-Dutch, [Moldavian-Romanian] or it doesn't and sticks to English and Romanian (as we speak about them)... ;-)

I am well aware of that dictionary -- which is a 'joke' and a sorce of great distress for all the intellectuals and linguists back in Moldova who fought aganst brain- and identity-washing during the Soviet times. The disctionary was subsidised by the Pro-Russian Government in an attempt to legitimise the 'made-up' country of Moldova, (ther is a great fear that it might unite with Romania, just as the two halfs of Germany did). But that is another story... I still stay by my point of view.

I'm waiting for an informed reply by the techies at FontFont. ;)

I've been told FontFont uses the information on http://www.evertype.com/alphabets/ which seems to be reliable as even Adobe is referring to this when they talk about localised features. Also, the Moldavian government itself speaks of their own language: "The Constitution of the Republic of Moldova ; adopted on July, 29, 1994 ; Published in Monitorul Oficial al R. Moldova, N1, July, 18, 1994 ; http://xiv.parlament.md/en/legalfoundation/constitution/t1/ _Article 13_ The National Language, Use of Other Languages: (1) The national language of the Republic of Moldova is Moldovan, and its writing is based on the Latin alphabet. So, maybe we should call the language Moldovan instead of Moldavian. Regarding "American" and "Canadian": The USA don?t have an official language (http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.html) and Canada has "English" and "French" as "official languages".

Frankly, Co, I don't know. Just to play it safe, Unzipped and FontShop International wish to publicly express their deepfelt apologies to the speakers of suppressed languages all over the world, including but not limited to Antwerpenaars, West-Vlamingen, Limburgers and Moldovan/Moldavian speaking Romanian citizens (or was it the other way around?). We're truly sorry.

;-) No need for apologies. it's just that the 'stable' Western world often forgets that things are not that simple when it comes to languages = identities in Central and Eastern Europe... Here is some more reading: Linguistic point of view The linguistic dispute which separates ?romanists? from ?moldavists? focuses on two points : * are Romanian (SIL Code, RUM; ISO 639-1 code, ro; ISO 639-2 -B-code, rum; ISO 639-2 -T-code, ron) and Moldovan (ISO 639-1 code, mo; ISO 639-2 code, mol) two distinct languages or one single language? * if they are one single language, is it right to give it several names, names which differ from one State to another or should not one name only be selected? Those who speak the language understand one another immediately and completely without translation or dictionary and no distinction between the two languages is made by scientific linguists, who agree that the basic lexical content and grammatical structure are identical, even though there are regional accents and some local expressions (which can be found, moreover, on either side of the border which separates Romania and Moldova). For example, a cabbage, a drill and a water melon are respectively said ?Curechi?, ?Sfredel? and ?Harbuz? in Moldova and Moldavia, but ?Varz??, ?Burghiu? and ?Pepene? in Transylvania and Valachia. However, all the Daco-Romanian-speakers know and understand both forms of each term. From a strictly linguistic point of view, Romanian and Moldovan are merely political terms for one single language: ?Daco-Romanian?, an ?abstand? language in socio-linguistic terms, that is to say, a language in which the dialects, past or present, display enough common structural traits, scientifically established, to constitute one language. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversy_over_national_identity_in_Moldova

Right, last but not least -- the http://www.evertype.com says the following: "Modern Romanian written in Cyrillic is known as Moldavian." Thus, back to where we started: Moldavian > Cyrillic alphabet > Not supported by Meta Serif Pro. ;-)

There's just one truth out there: THERE IS NO MOLDAVIAN LANGUAGE! You can call it "Papuasian" if you want to, invent dictionaries and new scripts, but it won't change the fact that is SAME AS ROMANIAN.