A culture of peace can only flourish where people enjoy the right to use
their mother language fully and freely in all the various situations of their
lives. Over the past three centuries, languages have died out and disappeared at
a dramatic and steadily increasing pace. Today, about half of the 6,000 or so
languages spoken in the world are under threat.
Following a proposal made by Bangladesh, UNESCO established International
Mother Language Day in 1999. The date chosen was 21st February in commemoration
of the movement in which five students died in on this date in 1952 defending
recognition of Bangla as a state language of the former Pakistan, the eastern
part of which became later the independent state of Bangladesh.
According to the recent census data, 74,5% of the 10 million people living in
Belarus regard the Belarusian as their native language. However, the monitoring
conducted by the Linguistic Commission of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee
suggests that the Belarusian language is facing certain difficulties as it is
rarely used as the language of official documents and records, it is not used by
officials. Unfortunately, there’s no program aimed at promotion and development
of the Belarusian language while the Russian language still dominates at TV
channels, in adverts and street posters.
International Mother Language Day aims at promoting linguistic diversity and
multilingual education, and at raising awareness of linguistic and cultural
traditions based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
* * *
«Spanish-speaking countries have a saying «Hablando, se entiende la
gente», which can be translated as “When people talk, they
understand each other”. Very often in our daily life we treat the
language that we speak as something natural. The language has become such an
important part of our life and originality, our thoughts and behavior that
sometimes we forget about its major role in establishing contacts and building
up understanding. Out of all the languages spoken in the world, the most
important language for our emotional and cognitive development is the language
that we use to express our first perception of the world, to find understanding
with the parents, the family, our friends and the school. This is the language
of our childhood, our intricate family experience and first relationships in the
society. Celebrating the International Mother Language Day we pay tribute to the
varieties of languages existing in the world as well as to the cultures they
represent …»
Katira Matsura, UNESCO General Director Language
Martyrs' Monument, Dhaka, Bangladesh
