Today, 21st February, is observed as the International Mother Language Day as proclaimed by UNESCO. From the event website:
"The 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.It originated as the international recognition of Language Movement Day, which has been commemorated in Bangladesh since 1952."
On this day I felt like sharing a video with my readers that I have made from a poster I had made some years back. It was to showcase the linguistic diversity of India, probably linguistically the most diverse country in the world with 23 official languages and 1600+ dialects spoken. I hope you will enjoy the video and the poster below.
(click to enlarge)
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2 comments:
Would love to know how they manage that at a governmental level. In Canada we have 2 official languages and anyone who works for the government is expected to have both languages though it is often biased toward the French.
There is a huge financial cost to this language issue that may be best diverted elsewhere like health and education.It has become an ongoing point of contention in Canada.
At govt level the documents can be in any one of the 23 official languages. The officials themselves are expected to know Hindi and usually they would know 2-3 other languages (which is the case with any Indian normally). There is no rule for which languages you SHOULD know sheerly because there are so many. The translaters help in official matters. Not sure about the cost factor though.
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