International Mother Language Day (21/02)

International Mother Language Day, proclaimed by the UNESCO General Conference on November 17, 1999, has been celebrated annually on February 21 since 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

In turn, the UN General Assembly in its resolution declared 2008 the International Year of Languages. 2010 was proclaimed the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures.

The date for the Day was chosen to commemorate the events that took place in Dhaka (now the — capital of Bangladesh) on February 21, 1952, when police bullets killed students demonstrating in defense of their native language, Bengali, which they demanded to be recognized as one of the state languages of the country.

Languages are the strongest instrument for preserving and developing our material and spiritual heritage. According to the UN, there are about 7 thousand languages in the world, of which 45% of languages are in danger of extinction, that is, they may soon lose their last speakers. Every two weeks, one language disappears in the world, taking with it a whole cultural and intellectual heritage. Only a few hundred languages play a prominent role in education systems and in the public sphere, and fewer than a hundred languages are used in the digital world.

All steps to promote the spread of mother tongues serve not only to promote linguistic diversity and multilingual education, and to develop greater familiarity with linguistic and cultural traditions around the world, but also to strengthen solidarity based on mutual understanding, tolerance and dialogue.

On February 21, 2003, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, Koichiro Matsuura, then Director-General of UNESCO, noted: «Why is so much attention paid to the native language? Because languages constitute a unique expression of human creativity in all its diversity. As a tool for communication, perception and reflection, language also describes how we see the world and reflects the connection between the past, present and future. Languages bear traces of chance encounters, the various sources from which they were saturated, each according to their own separate history.

Native languages are unique in the imprint they put on each person from birth, giving them a special vision of things that will never actually disappear, despite the fact that the person subsequently masters many languages. Learning a foreign language — is a way to get acquainted with another vision of the world, with other approaches».

Each year, as part of the celebration of Mother Language Day, various events are held in different countries dedicated to a specific topic and aimed at promoting respect for, and promoting and protecting, all languages (especially languages on the verge of extinction), linguistic diversity and multilingualism. Thus, over the years, the Day was devoted to the following topics: the relationship between the native language and multilingualism, especially in education; Braille system and sign language; raising public awareness on issues of linguistic and cultural traditions based on mutual understanding, tolerance and dialogue; protection of the intangible heritage of mankind and the preservation of cultural diversity; the role of the language in which teaching is conducted in schools; multilingual education as the basis for teaching and transferring knowledge between generations and others.



Postcard «February 21 — International Mother Language Day» Article «Sacred power of the native language»

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