International Mother Language Day

The International Mother Language Day is a day of remembrance exclaimed by UNESCO to "promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism ." It is celebrated since 2000 annually on 21 February.

Given the fact that over half of the world's spoken languages ​​are threatened with extinction, UNESCO has for a promotion of languages ​​written as a sign of cultural identity of the speakers on the flags, on the other hand she is also about the teaching of languages ​​and multilingualism as the key to mutual understanding and respect.

The annual commemoration 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 succeeding generations and forgotten. Many languages ​​with sometimes less than a hundred speakers are not even recorded and documented. A particular focus in 2005 was the sign language for deaf people and braille for blind people.

Historical Background

In 1952 the regime of the then Pakistan decided the appointment of Urdu the sole official language, although it was mother tongue for only 3 % of the population. In East Pakistan even almost exclusively Bengali was spoken. Protests in Dhaka on February 21, police fired on demonstrators; there were deaths.

Your continued linguistic and cultural repression of East Pakistan resulted finally in 1971 for the cleavage and formation of Bangladesh. The February 21 is celebrated as the day of martyrs there ever since. This day was collected in November 1999 by the UNESCO International Mother Language Day at the request of Bangladesh. On 16 May 2007 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the year 2008 also the International Year of Languages.

On Mother Language Day in Saarbrücken find transboundary native language events entitled " muddaschpròòch " instead. The included spoken in the Saarland dialects, the Moselle Franconian and Rhine Franconian, are among the most nominated by the UNESCO endangered languages ​​.