international mother language day
DESCRIPTION
Discover linguistics with Oxford Handbooks Online on International Mother Language Day. International Mother Language Day was introduced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999 in recognition of the sanctity and preservation of all vernacular languages in the world. The background of this measure was the Language Movement in East Pakistan from 1948 to 1952. International Mother Language Day has been named as 21 February because on this day in 1952, Language Movement demonstrators took to the streets in defiance of government orders. Pakistani police fired into the crowd and killed four, but their sacrifice helped East Pakistanis succeed in establishing their mother tongue, Bengali, as one of the state languages of Pakistan. (Source: Oxford Reference Online)TRANSCRIPT
as of '92, of the 187 native languages still spoken inthe US + Canada, only 40 or so were being naturallypassed on to children. Fortunately, there are ongoingefforts to maintain and even revitalize endangeredlanguages, but If we do not act quickly, the worldwill soon be a far less interesting place
culturally and linguistically.
IS the ability to infer others' mental states FROMgaze, facial expression, etc. While all primates have
significant abilities of this kind, in humans they haveundergone extraordinary development.
'mindreading'
LANGUAGE POLICY IN THE U.S.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS FOR THE EVOLUTIONARYEMERGENCE OF LANGUAGE
Learning and knowing one's language/mother tongue isa necessary prerequisite for being able to enjoy the
right to speak it.
When a pidgin (primarily used as a second language forintergroup communication.) is learned by children as theirfirst language and becomes the mother tongue of a newcommunity, it is called a creole.
PIDGINS AND CREOLES
LINGUISTIC HUMAN RIGHTS
INTERNATIONALMOTHERLANGUAGE DAY
celebrating linguistic diversity