NationMaster - Encyclopedia: International Mother Language Day

21st February has been proclaimed the International Mother Language Day by the UNESCO in 2000. This day also commemorates the Bengali Language Movement of 1952 when many Bengali speaking people were massacred by the Pakistani police and Army in Dhaka.

External Links

UNESCO homepage for Int'l Mother Language Day (http://webworld.unesco.org/imld/)

Categories: International organization stubs | UN observances

Results from FactBites:

International Mother Language Day (500 words)
	Language is an arbitrary system of sounds and symbols which is used for many purposes by a group of people, chiefly to communicate with each other, to express cultural identity, to convey social relationships, and to provide a source of delight (for example, in literature).
	Each language has a huge vocabulary available to meet the needs of its users - in the case of European languages, where scientific and technical vocabulary is very large, this reaches several hundred thousand words and phrases.
	Languages are always in contact with each other, and affect each other in many ways, especially by borrowing words.

International Mother Language Day (458 words)
	The background to the proclamation of the International Mother Language Day was a proposal from Bangladesh at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on 17 November 1999 to declare 21 February as an international day on the ground that on this day many had sacrificed their lives for their mother tongue.
	The Paris Conference was convinced that one of the most effective ways to promote and develop mother tongues was the establishment of an International Mother Language Day throughout the world with a view to organizing various activities in the member states and a language exhibition at UNESCO Headquarters on the same day.
	Diversity of languages and of cultures, as in the case of biodiversity, is increasingly being seen as a good and beautiful thing in itself.

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COMMENTARY

Suchita Vemuri Staff Editor 23rd February 2005	Thanks, Syed, for your input. Though, internationally, 'Bangla' and 'Bengali' refer to the same language, we see that Bangladesh does, in fact, officially list the national language as 'Bangla' and not 'Bengali' and will accordingly make the correction here.
Syed Hossain 21st February 2005	I appreciate and thank you for including the Bangla language movement and the historical background at this web site. Being a Bangladeshi I have noticed that your site is using British word of censure of Bangla i.e. Bengali. The country is Bangladesh and the language is Bangla not bengali. I will appreciate if you (or your organization)do correct this mistake. I hope you have independent sources to verify this pronunciation but if I could be any help, please feel free to write to me at: hossain_@yahoo.com
Syed Hossain 21st February 2005	I appreciate and thank you for including the Bangla language movement and the historical background at this website. Being a Bangladeshi I have noticed that your site is using the British word of censure of Bangla i.e Bengali. The country is Bangladesh and the language is Bangla not Bengali. I would appreciate it if you could correct this mistake.

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