International Mother Language Day
The International Day of the mother tongue is one of the UNESCO exclaimed memorial to "promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism ." It has been celebrated annually on February 21st since 2000 .
purpose
Against the background that over half of all languages spoken worldwide are threatened with extinction, UNESCO has on the one hand committed itself to promoting languages as a symbol of the cultural identity of the speakers, and on the other hand it is also concerned with foreign language teaching and multilingualism as the key to mutual understanding and respect.
The annual memorial day is used to draw attention to minority languages with fewer than 10,000 speakers. In many cases, these languages are no longer passed on to subsequent generations and are forgotten. Many languages, some of which have fewer than a hundred speakers, have not even been recorded and documented. The focus in 2005 was on sign language for the deaf and Braille for the blind.
Historical background
In 1952 the government decided the then Pakistan the collection of Urdu the sole official language, although it was mother tongue for only 3% of the population. In East Pakistan , Bengali was spoken almost exclusively . During protests in Dhaka on February 21, police shot at demonstrators; there were deaths.
The continuing linguistic and cultural oppression of East Pakistan finally led to the secession and the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971 . Since then, February 21 has been celebrated there as the Day of Martyrs . At the request of Bangladesh, this day was made International Mother Language Day in November 1999 by UNESCO. On May 16, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly also proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages .
See also
Web links
- International Mother Language Day (UNESCO) (German)
- International Mother Language Day (UNESCO) (English / French)
- UNESCO Education Notes on annual activities from 2000 onwards (English / French)
- UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (English / French / Spanish)
- Info page at edimuster.ch
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.unesco.de. Retrieved June 26, 2013 .