Celebrating International Mother Language Day

See this post on LinkedIn

This February 21st marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of International Mother Language Day. This is a good time to be reminded of what this celebration represents.

The original UN resolution establishing International Mother Language Day highlights several points about language:

• multilingualism—when one person speaks more than one language—is a means of promoting, protecting and preserving diversity of languages and cultures globally
• genuine multilingualism promotes unity in diversity and promotes international understanding, both of which contribute to peaceful and mutually beneficial international relationships

Since this is a UN resolution, it’s natural that it focuses on issues at an international scale. However, issues of language and multilingualism can be found at any level of society, from the international scale, to your town, and to your own neighborhood and schools. There are people in the places where you shop, the places where you or your children study, or even the places where you worship, who speak languages that are different from yours. That should not represent a barrier to be overcome, but an opportunity for you to learn from a different way to look at the world.

Next week, I’ll be attending the UNESCO Language Technologies for All Conference. Even though multilingualism can “[foster] social development by promoting inclusion, preserving cultural heritage, and empowering language communities,” language communities differ in the language technologies that are available to them, and this results in differences in how easy it is for communities to reach their goals for their members. As part of the Advancing Indigenous Language Technologies working group, I’d like to see access to appropriate language technology tools grow for all of the roughly 7000 languages in the world today, not just the 50 or 100 that happen to have the most data online.

Is there something that you could do to celebrate International Mother Language Day this year? Consider starting by simply finding out about the other languages that are spoken where you live. Tucson is the traditional home to communities who speak Hiaki and O’odham, and many other languages can now be found around town. Taking the next step and trying to learn one of these languages, to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart, could be the beginning of some beautiful friendships.