#international language day

[arachneofthoughts]

এক ফালি ইতিহাস

A Slice of History

So my father went to the Kolkata International Bookfair or any Bangali's favourite Boimela. He saw a stall of Sulekha inks...The Sulekha inks and of course he had to explore.

Let me share with you a brief history of Sulekha....

Around 1932 Satish Das Gupta, an ex-chemist of Bengal Chemicals prepares Swadeshi ink, names it Krishnadhara and sells it through Khadi outlets. He then hands the recipe over to Maitra brothers Shankaracharya and Nani Gopal and asked them to make the ink commercially and call it Sulekha ( there is also a story which claims Kobiguru Rabindranath Thakur gave them the name সুলেখা or Sulekha ). After years of an illustrious journey they closed around 1990 and then reopened in 2006.

So my father purchased three things. Two inks and a notebook.

The first ink is a blood red ink called সেলাম ( Selaam or Salaam ). It was made as a gift to Bangladesh commemorating The Language Movement ( ভাষা আন্দোলন ). At first 21 bottles were gifted as a tribute to 21st February. And the creator of the ink mixed in a drop of his blood in the first 21 bottles. Then the ink became popular and was manufactured more. It is a beautiful red colour...and every drop of this ink holds in it the memories of every drop of blood shed for my beloved Bangla Bhasha.

The second ink is a vibrant green. Coloured just like the green of India's Tiranga. This ink was formulated on the day after India's Independence. It is called Swadhin or স্বাধীন.

The third is a notebook made in collaboration with jamini Ray's family. And I absolutely love that notebook.

[rabbitcruiser]

International Language Day

International Mother Language Day is observed annually on February 21. The first observance was organized by UNESCO as a celebration of linguistic and cultural diversity. There are over 7,000 languages spoken in the world — this is a large number considering that some languages are better documented and more spoken than others. Many ethnic languages, some of which are still spoken by small groups today, will most likely be extinct in a few decades. This is why International Mother Language Day is so important, as it is part of a larger initiative to revive many communities’ linguistic heritage.

History of Language Day

UNESCO first established International Mother Language in 1999. The first inaugural celebration was held in 2000. This annual commemoration began as a tribute to the Bengali Language Movement, which sought to recognize Bengali as the official language of modern-day Bangladesh. Historically, this region was considered part of East Pakistan, and it had large Bengali communities with a distinctive language and culture. The plight of the Bengali language is representative of many similar ones faced by small linguistic communities around the world.

The Bengali movement’s plight can most likely be traced back to the establishment of Pakistan in 1947. The Bengali Language Movement began in East Pakistan’s Bengali communities and gained prominence in the early 1950s. To gain official recognition for their language, the movement held public meetings and rallies. In 1952, police opened fire on the Bengali Language Movement’s mass procession march. Several people were killed, and hundreds more were injured. The day of this incident was to be commemorated by Bengalis as a national holiday.

This story later inspired the United Nations to designate February 21 as International Mother Language Day. The U.N. initiative’s goal is to save the world’s languages from extinction. Since 2000, every international observance has had a theme. Each year’s celebration tries to add new elements to educational efforts to preserve indigenous languages and promote language learning. As a result, the celebration of the Bengali Language Movement becomes an international phenomenon that honors languages all over the world.

Language Day timeline

1952

Mass Procession

Bengalis march in a historic procession that ends in police violence that kills and injures countless people.

1955

First Observance In Bangladesh

For the first time, Bangladesh observes Language Movement Day as a national holiday.

1999

First Proclamation

In commemoration of the Bengali Language Movement, the United Nations declares February 21 as International Mother Language Day.

2008

Year Of Languages

In keeping with the annual commemorations of this day, the United Nations declares 2008 the International Year of Languages.

Language Day FAQs

How many languages are in the world?

There are more than 7,000 languages in the world still in use today, with only around 4,000 having a written form.

What is the most spoken language in the world?

Although English is the most widely spoken language, with over 1.13 billion speakers, Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers, with approximately 1.11 billion speakers.

What is the hardest language to learn?

There are many difficult languages, but the hardest to learn are Chinese, German, Russian, and Arabic.

How to Observe Language Day

Take part in effortsSeveral efforts will be organized to further enable the goals of International Mother Language Day, as one of the most widely celebrated international events. Volunteering with cultural centers can be a rewarding experience as well as a useful service.

Start learning a languageWhat better way to honor languages than by starting to learn one? This is not a simple task, but taking the first steps can serve as the foundation for a life-long and rewarding project.

Learn the historyThe importance of languages in our cultures and civilizations cannot be overstated. As a result, learning the history of languages and how they evolved can be a good starting point for honoring them. Many events and discussions are planned during this international observance to shed light on these topics, with learning resources available.

5 Incredible Facts About World Languages

Least spoken language: Taushiro, or Pinche, is a nearly extinct language of the Peruvian Amazon, with only one living speaker.

Oldest written language: The Sumerian language is the oldest written language in history, dating back to 3000 B.C.

Most official languages: Zimbabwe has 16 officially recognized national languages, more than any other country in the world.

Most spoken languages: Papua New Guinea has 840 distinct spoken languages, making it the country with the most spoken languages.

Largest alphabet: The Khmer language, which is mostly spoken in Cambodia, has the largest alphabet of any language with 74 characters.

Why Language Day is Important

Many languages are endangered: Although there are many spoken languages today, the majority of them are in danger of extinction. This is one of the primary motivations for this international observance. Many languages are at risk of extinction because they are largely undocumented.

Languages develop through interaction with others: Every language has aspects of its syntax and vocabulary that have been influenced by other languages. This is how many languages evolved into their current form throughout history. Language preservation will help to keep the world's linguistic landscape rich and diverse.

Multilingualism: According to several statistics, at least half of the world's population is bilingual. Multilingualism is becoming more popular not only for professional or educational reasons but also as a culturally rewarding learning experience.

Source

[wistfulwatcher]

in a n o t h e r life

[bodhrancomedy]

Happy International Sign Language Day!

[warpedwings]

It's International Day of Sign Languages! (September 23rd) Here is Shoshannah and Jensen showing his sign name, with Misha popping in. 🤟

See Misha's here.

[beautiful-basque-country]

10 facts about Basque language

1 - It's one of the oldest living languages in Europe, predating Indo-European.

2 - In fact there's a theory defending our language was already in use during Neolithic times, since the name we use for many tools may bring the root for stone, meaning the name was born when the tools were made of stone.

3 - It's so important to Basque people we call our land "The land of the Basque language". We call our language Euskara, and any other language was simply referred to as erdara.

4 - It has no gender and 13 linguistic cases. Accent depends mainly on declension.

5 - Euskara uses a vigesimal counting system, so we say 4*20+10+5 instead of 95.

6 - Basque has 7 dialects, and around 1M speakers.

7 - It's one of the best represented languages on Wikipedia, with more than 400,000 articles.

8 - It has survived centuries of legislation that punished its use and wanted it erased. Children went to clandestine Basque schools during Franco's dictatorship, while teachers and parents risked themselves to a death sentence if caught.

9 - Basque has its own family of fonts, rescued from the traditional engraving of tombstones.

10 - It's a growing language: in Euskadi there are 250,000 Basque speakers more than 30 years ago.

[jacqueswriteblrlibrary]

happy international mother language day

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, it goes to his heart.” - Nelson Mandela

what's the first language of your OCs? what does it mean to them if someone speaks it to them?

[curtwilde]

Happy International Native Language day

[useless-catalanfacts]

There are 84 recognised languages native to the European Union, but only 24 of them are official. Most of the time, the speakers of indigenous, minority or “regional” languages are discriminated against and have the state’s official language imposed in their everyday life.

Reposting from EFA Youth’s Instagram account:

On International Mother Language Day we reiterate our demand for the right to live, learn, work and communicate in our own languages. 

We’ve set out 4 steps for the European youth to improve linguistic diversity on our continent.

1️⃣ To demand the right to live, to work and to communicate in our own languages.

2️⃣ To fight for the right to learn our own languages and to be taught in them. Education is key to a language’s survival.

3️⃣Insist on public services being delivered in our own languages for the benefit of all.

4️⃣Speak up and use your languages, no matter how confident you are, the way to guarantee a language’s future is to speak it wherever possible.

[learningfromlosing]

So I guess there are different ways to say something is "the bee's knees" and you have to know them bc they're honestly the cows vagina

[pillsburydoughboysupreme]

guys i’m being a nerd again and im making a conlang (maybe) based off the way too much thinking i did for my orc character in dnd. i haven’t played dnd in months but that’s beside the point.

the point is i want More Sounds. so i started looking at the international phonetic alphabet. but alas i am stupid and half of them sound identical.

[akechi-if-he-slayed]

you see i lwk do fw mexican goro because you just have to imagine him growing up with spanish songs played from shitty radios as his mother tries her hardest to give him some semblance of what she grew up with in a country that’s across the ocean from her home where it’s just the two of the them and u also have to imagine nights where they sing along and dance aimlessly but he’s just a kid and so much shorter than her, so she grabs his hands and they sing amor prohibido and como la flor, from a voice goro doesn’t recognize but she tells him was her favorite, the lyrics flowing beautifully from her tongue but a bit choppy with goro’s patchwork spanish. those are the precious few moments goro keeps ingrained with him, and it’s the very same reason why he vows to never speak spanish again or engage in any part of that culture, his culture, once she dies.

[lokh]

sometimes people talk about getting into teaching like you should be super passionate and want to be changing lives and shit and you should be trying to become the dead poets society guy im like. surely there are just Ok teachers out there that are getting by fine

[tiger-willow]

Bonne journée de la femme qsmpblr !! J'ai un fanart de toutes les filles/femmes du serveur qui allait être posté aujourd'hui, mais c'est un peu inachevé, donc il pourrait être retardé de quelques jours parce que le stress de l'école et le qsmp discourse m'est arrivé, alors j'espère que vous comprenez ❤️‍🩹

(Happy woman’s day qsmpblr!! I do have fanart of all the girls/woman of the server which was gonna be posted today but it is kinda unfinished so it might be delayed a few days because the stress of school and the qsmp discourse got to me so I hope you understand ❤️‍🩹)

[warpedwings]

It's International Day of Sign Languages! (September 23rd) Here is Shoshannah and Misha showing his sign name. 🤟

See Jensen's here.

[beautiful-basque-country]

The oldest words written in proto-Basque.

They appeared on the Hand of Irulegi, a metal piece that was found in 2021 and dates back to around 80BCE.

They're still being studied to achieve a translation, but the first one - sorioneku - had a great impact in every Basque speaker due to its stounding resemblance to modern Basque zorioneko: lucky, for good luck. It has already become a Basque symbol and you'll find it in many souvenirs.

It's not crazy to think that the word meant the same 2,000 years ago since the hand was a presumed lucky charm that used to be hung over the door of a house; so maybe the inscription starts something like "lucky be the ones of this house". We'll have to wait for a proper translation, though!