Language Martyrs
February 24, 2009 by Bilingual Pen filed under Essays, Language | 580 viewsIndeklara ti UNESCo idi 1991 ti February 21 nga International Mother Language Day. Naladaw man, i-linkko man ditoy websitetayo daytoy essay ni Dr. Ricardo Ma. Duran Nolasco.
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This Feb. 21 the world celebrates International Mother Language Day. The proclamation for its annual celebration was made by UNESCO in 1999 to encourage peoples worldwide to maintain their knowledge and use of the mother language as well as to learn other languages. Twenty-eight countries, including the Philippines, supported the UNESCO declaration.
In Bangladesh, Feb. 21 is known as Language Martyrs Day, to honor the students and intellectuals who died in 1952 when Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan) resisted the imposition of Urdu as the sole national language. Protests demanding that Bangla be included as one of the state’s languages erupted countrywide. The state’s security forces responded by banning demonstrations. On Feb. 21, 1952, police opened fire at a peaceful rally in Dhaka, killing several students. The language movement resulted in the recognition of Bangla as an official language in 1956 and culminated in the 1971 war of liberation which led to Bangladesh independence from Pakistan.
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Brian Barker
Although International Mother Language Day is now over, you may be interested in the contribution, made by the World Esperanto Association, to UNESCO’s campaign for the protection of endangered languages.
The following declaration was made in favour of Esperanto, by UNESCO at its Paris HQ in December 2008. http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=38420&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html
The commitment to the campaign to save endangered languages was made, by the World Esperanto Association at the United Nations’ Geneva HQ in September.
February 26th, 2009 at 4:20 amhttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eR7vD9kChBA&feature=related or http://www.lernu.net
Sherma E. Benosa
Hi Brian. Thanks for dropping by. And for taking the time to comment.
Isn’t it that Esperanto is an ARTIFICIAL language. It desn’t have a community of native speakers to speak of.
March 2nd, 2009 at 10:37 pm