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<h2>Promoting multilingualism on Mother Language Day </h2>
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<h3><a href="http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/02/mother-language-multilingualism.html"><font color="#044e8e">Promoting multilingualism on Mother Language Day</font></a></h3>
<p class="note">Posted on February 21, 2010 <span class="divider">|</span> <a class="comments" href="http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/02/mother-language-multilingualism.html#comments"><font color="#044e8e">0 Comments</font></a> </p>
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<p>Since 1950 at least 240 languages have died, according to the <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/"><font color="#044e8e">United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization</font></a> (Unesco). That's a cultural extinction rate of one language every three months over the last 60 years. Worse news is that the language mortality rate may be accelerating dramatically. "Half of the 6,700 languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing before the century ends, a process that can be slowed only if urgent action is taken by governments and speaker communities," Unesco says on its Web site. By my math, this worst-case scenario is an extinction rate of a language death every ten days between now and the year 2100.</p>
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<p><font style="FONT-SIZE: 1em">This map from the </font><a href="http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00139"><font style="FONT-SIZE: 1em" color="#044e8e">Unesco Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger</font></a><font style="FONT-SIZE: 1em"> shows the location of more than 200 languages that have no more than 10 speakers. The problem of disappearing tongues is clearly global.</font></p>
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<p><font style="FONT-SIZE: 1em">Unesco Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger shows the location of the 519 languages that have no more than 100 speakers. The online Atlas aims to provide speaker communities, policy-makers and the general public with state-of-the-art knowledge, continually updated by a growing network of experts and community members.</font>Why does it matter that fewer languages are spoken? Isn't there merit in all of us speaking the same language? Every time we lose a language we lose human experience, creativity, and a unique perspective of ourselves and the world. We are all weaker every time it happens.</p>
<p>There is something we can do about it--and it's not only a matter of protecting and promoting our own mother tongue. Language and cultural experts tell us that the best way to protect human cultural diversity is to celebrate and share it. Celebrate our own language, yes, but also learn and respect the languages of others.</p>
<p><font style="FONT-SIZE: 1.25em" size="3"><strong>The essence of living heritage</strong></font></p>
<p>The vital role of language in the expression and transmission of living heritage was enshrined in a <a href="http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17716&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html"><font color="#044e8e">United Nations convention in 2003</font></a>. "All intangible cultural heritage domains--from knowledge about the universe to rituals, performing arts to handicrafts--depend on language for their day-to-day practice and inter-generational transmission. In the domain of oral traditions and expressions, language is not only a vehicle of intangible heritage, it is their very essence," Unesco says. <img class="mt-image-right" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px 20px" height="422" alt="mother-tongue-day-poster.jpg" src="http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/mother-tongue-day-poster.jpg" width="300"></p>
<p>International Mother Language Day, proclaimed by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1999, has been observed yearly since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The <a href="http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/mt-static/html/eleventh%20International%20Mother%20Language%20Day"><font color="#044e8e">eleventh International Mother Language Day</font></a>, today, February 21, 2010, is being celebrated in the framework of the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures. An international sympisum to discuss these matters is being held in Paris this week.</p>
<p>"By virtue of the numerous activities that have marked this celebration for ten years, the importance of linguistic diversity and multilingualism is now recognized," said Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, in a statement on the occasion of International Mother Day Language 2010. "Over the years, the many and essential roles played by languages in the educational, cultural and economic fabric of our societies have come to be better understood," Bokova added.</p>
<p>"The mother language, in which the first words are uttered and individual thought expressed, is the foundation for the history and culture of each individual. "Moreover, it has been proven that children learn best when they are instructed in their mother language during their first years at school."</p>
<p><strong><font style="FONT-SIZE: 1.25em" size="3">Mother language and multilingualism</font></strong></p>
<p>The concept of mother language complements that of multilingualism, which UNESCO strives to promote, by encouraging the acquisition of at least three levels of language proficiency: a mother language, a national language and a language of communication, Bokova said. Languages are the best vehicles of mutual understanding and tolerance, she explained. "Respect for all languages is a key factor for ensuring peaceful coexistence, without exclusion, of societies and all of their members.</p>
<p>"Multilingualism, which can be defined as the harmonious accommodation of different languages spoken within a common space, therefore becomes an essential component of educational and cultural policies, to which attention must increasingly be paid.</p>
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<p><font style="FONT-SIZE: 1.56em" size="5">"The learning of foreign languages...must be promoted as a constructive and structural element of modern education." </font></p></blockquote></blockquote>
<p>"At the same time, the learning of foreign languages and, as a result, the individual ability to use several languages encourages openness towards diversity and understanding of other cultures. As such, it must be promoted as a constructive and structural element of modern education." Because of the increased pace of communication in our globalized world, translation is enjoying a level of growth unprecedented in the history of humanity, Bokova said. "For it to become a genuine tool for reciprocal dialogue and knowledge, we must promote a more diversified and even more balanced context of cultural and scientific exchange.</p>
<p>"Multilingualism, the learning of foreign languages and translation are three strategic axes for the language policies of tomorrow. On the occasion of this 11th International Mother Language Day, I am appealing to the international community to give the mother language, in each of these three axes, its rightful, fundamental place, in a spirit of respect and tolerance which paves the way for peace," Bokova said.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.livingtongues.org/"><font color="#044e8e">The Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages</font></a> has linked up with the National Geographic Society to form the Enduring Voices Project, which strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots--the places with the most unique, poorly understood, or threatened indigenous languages--and documenting the languages and cultures within them. For more details, visit the <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mission/enduringvoices/"><font color="#044e8e">Enduring Voices Project</font></a> Web site.</p>
<p><font style="FONT-SIZE: 1.25em" size="3"><strong>You might also be interested in:</strong></font></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2009/11/0005-native-american-vanishing-languages.html">
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Preserving Native America's vanishing languages<br></a></strong>Greg Anderson, director of Living Tongues, talks about the disappearing languages of the U.S. and what's been done to document, if not save them.</p>
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<p><strong><a href="http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/02/last-bo-speaker-dies.html">
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<p><a href="http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/02/mother-language-multilingualism.html">http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/02/mother-language-multilingualism.html</a></p>
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