INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY

International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh. At present over 3 000 of the approximately 6 900 languages spoken in the world are under threat, endangered or dying out. The past three centuries have seen languages die out and disappear at a dramatic and steadily increasing pace. A language is generally considered 'endangered' by experts when at least 30% of the community's children no longer learn it. Mandarin Chinese tops the list of most widely spoken world languages, with over a billion speakers. Ter Sami was traditionally spoken in the north east of the Kola Peninsula in Russia where the total population of the six villages was recorded as being just 450 in the 19th century. This year, the number of Ter Sami speakers has dropped to two elders from a population of 100, making it the least spoken language. In Africa, there is little known about linguistics and many of its governments encourage the use of the major African languages, such as Swahili (East Africa) or even colonial languages. Other factors leading to the loss of native tongues is the break-up or translocation of a community where individuals or smaller groups find themselves in different cultural and linguistic environments. Languages may also be affected by the encroachment of a more dominant culture and adults encourage their children to learn the 'new' language especially if it means an opportunity for employment. This situation is also worsened when authorities discourage the use of native languages in the local community, local schools and the media.