International Mother Language Day
Feb 21, 2017 07:51 UTC
Language reflects the culture of people who speak that tongue and through it convey to the world their thoughts, their feelings, their way of life, their traditions, and their contribution to the collective development of mankind’s progress in the fields of art, architecture, science and technology.
Every person is proud of his/her mother tongue, and strives to protect it from fading into oblivion, since the death of a language means the death of part of human culture and civilization. On the occasion of IMLD or International Mother Language Day, we have prepared a special programme.
February 21 reminds us of the protests staged on this day in 1952 by students in what was then East Pakistan and what is now the independent country of Bangladesh, for recognition of their mother tongue and the national language of their state, Bangla or Bengali, as the second official language of Pakistan. Sadly, a number of protestors in Dhaka were killed by the police, because of the misconstrued policies of the central government in the federal capital Karachi in what was then West Pakistan, to suppress their demands and instead impose Urdu as the only language of the whole country. This step alienated the Bengali Muslims and not only did not suppress their aspirations for recognition of their mother tongue, Bangla, but did great harm to Urdu itself, which as the language of culture, poetry, science and national unity of the entire Subcontinent, began to be seen by the Bangla-speakers as a vehicle of repression. Finally in 1956, due to the resistance and steadfastness of students, university professors and ethnic Bengali activists of East Pakistan, Bangla language was officially recognized as the mother language of the local people. But the change of heart from the authorities in Karachi was too late and the lingual and ethnic discrimination against the Bangla-speakers did irreparable harm to the unity of Pakistan, resulting in the separation of its eastern wing, with India’s military help, of course, as the independent country of Bangladesh in 1971. Ever since independence, Bangladesh had been holding special ceremonies every year on February 21 as National Mother Language Day, and on 17th November 1999, on its proposal UNESCO or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, declared February 21 as the International Mother Language Day. In 2008, this was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution, with 188 member states including the Islamic Republic of Iran voting in favour.
Every year, UNESCO holds ceremonies in member states on February 21 and urges governments to recognize the rights of the people for education in their mother language. The overall objective of the Day is to contribute to promoting Global Citizenship education. This year, the opening ceremony of the International Mother Language Day is being held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The theme for celebration of IMLD 2017 is "Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education." Last year’s theme was "Education for People and the Planet: Creating Sustainable Futures for All". UNESCO emphasizes promotional activities of mother language and multilingual education at the national level in world countries. IMLD also supports Goal 4.6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), saying in its statement: "Ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy". UNESCO’s Director-General, Bulgaria’s Irina Georgieva Bokova, considers mother languages as the identity of humans and says that “by safeguarding them we actually preserve ourselves.” She said in her message on IMLD 2017: “I request that multilingual education is recognized through the executive and educational system, cultural translation, cyber space, trade and other fields.”
On the occasion of IMLD 2017, the UNESCO website, reads: In order to pave the way for sustainable development, students should be taught their mother language – in addition to other languages. It is through good command of the mother language that acquisition of basic skills including reading, writing and mathematics become possible. Local languages especially minority or native languages are considered the gate for transferring cultures, values and traditional knowledge. Therefore, languages play an important role in pushing forward to sustainable development.
Today people throughout the world speak 6700 different languages. Half the number of these languages are in danger of extinction, and over the past 60 years, some 200 languages have disappeared. According to experts by the end of the 21st century, half of these languages will be no more. According to the UNESCO Atlas on the World’s Endangered Languages, 96 percent of these languages are used by only four percent of the world population.
David Hicks, editor-in-chief of a news service of minor European languages, says: linguistic diversity is part of biodiversity. When animals die it is detrimental to our planet but in my view if once other languages are destroyed and only English, French or Chinese remain, our world would become poorer. To maintain this linguistic diversity and cultural diversity, the United Nations endorsed the year 2008 as the "International Year of Languages".
A psychologist says: the mother language is the means with which a child builds its identity. Mother language is the only and first communication means of a child with its immediate relatives, that is, parents, siblings, and grandparents. It is evident that for the social life of a human being, fostering unity among family members, especially during childhood plays a vital role. The child, who due to various reasons has become deprived of mother language, basically cannot create linguistic and emotional communication with the immediate family members, despite their deep attachment to it. In fact, the child cannot foster its inner feelings of belonging to the family and develops the psychology of a stranger. This leads to irreparable harm for not just the family but the environment and the society, since the personality of every person takes shape right from childhood through communication with closest relatives and expression or exchange of sincerity with them. Happy are the children who are not deprived of love and have easily built their emotional relationship with family members, especially those who are biologically close to them. And this is possible only through mother language. The importance of mother language is further revealed in the late South African president Nelson Mandela’s statement which reads: if you speak to a human in a language that he knows, your words will find way to his brain. But if you speak to someone with his mother language, it will penetrate the heart.
FK/AS/MG