{"id":357782,"date":"2010-02-24T10:29:33","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T15:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalvoicesonline.org\/?p=124379"},"modified":"2010-02-24T10:29:33","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T15:29:33","slug":"americas-international-mother-language-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/357782","title":{"rendered":"Americas: International Mother Language Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNESCO invites the world to celebrate the International Mother Language Day<\/a> annually on February 21 to encourage all communities to “promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.” According to Ko\u00efchiro Matsuura, former UNESCO Director-General: <\/p>\n

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…Languages constitute an irreducible expression of human creativity in all its diversity. Tools of communication, perception and reflection, they also shape the way we view the world and provide a link between past, present and future. They bear within them the traces of their
\nencounters, the diverse sources from which they have borrowed, each according to its own particular history.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Celebration<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebration in front of the International Mother Language Day Monument in Ashfield, Sidney (Australia). Photo by Anisur Rahman and used under Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In recent times when many of the world languages are in risk of extinction<\/a>, this day reminds many of the importance of mother tongues through the discussion about the need to maintain global cultural diversity as long as possible. Part of these efforts, according to Matsuura, include a primary school in Kosovo that has launched a series of exchanges with students from “different schools and nations”; celebrations with poems, indigenous songs, stories, plays, and a ceremony organized in the Philippines titled, “In the Galaxy of Languages, Every Word is a Star.” This celebration has also been important in Bangladesh<\/a>, where they have been celebrating the diversity of languages since 1952.<\/p>\n

David Galeano Oliveira, in his blog Caf\u00e9 Historia [es]<\/em><\/a> supports this idea:<\/p>\n

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Cada lengua refleja una visi\u00f3n \u00fanica del mundo y una cultura compleja que refleja la forma en la que una comunidad ha resuelto sus problemas en su relaci\u00f3n con el mundo, y en la que ha formulado su pensamiento, su sistema filos\u00f3fico y el entendimiento del mundo que le rodea. Por eso, con la muerte y desaparici\u00f3n de una lengua, se pierde para siempre una parte insustituible de nuestro conocimiento del pensamiento y de la visi\u00f3n del mundo.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Each language reflects a unique vision of the globe and a complex culture that shows the way in which a community solves its problems around their own relationship of the world. It also shows how these peoples have made up their thoughts, their philosophical system and the understanding of their surroundings. This is why, with the death of a language, also comes the loss of an irreplaceable part of our own knowledge and our vision of the world.\n<\/div>\n

The Ongoing Discussion About What is \u201cGood\u201d Spanish<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended up losing\u2026we ended up winning\u2026they took the gold and left us the gold\u2026they took everything and left us everything\u2026they left us the words\u201d<\/p>\n

Pablo Neruda<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Most Spanish speakers are located in Latin America<\/a>; of all countries with a majority of Spanish speakers, only Spain and Equatorial Guinea are outside the Americas. For many in the region, Spanish is considered to be their mother tongue based on the long history with Spain. However, the Spanish language differs from country to country, which brings up discussions and debates about origins, forms and \u201cstyles\u201d. In the blog Sacando la Lengua [es]<\/a>, I tried to underline the fact that these difference are today a futile matter of discussion:<\/p>\n

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Hace mucho que nos hemos dado cuenta de que el idioma m\u00e1s que algo abstracto pareciera m\u00e1s bien tomar la forma de un animal salvaje; y como tal, cambia, evoluciona y crece. \u00bfSe podr\u00e1 dominar a este animal? Muy buena suerte a los que lo intenten. Una vez preso, cambiar\u00e1 de forma. Observar su belleza traer\u00e1 seguramente muchos menos cotilleos bizantinos que determinar cu\u00e1l es la exacta, o cu\u00e1l es la \u201ccorrecta\u201d forma de hablar la lengua de Lorca, de las versiones y diversiones de Paz, de la hilarante modestia de Borges y de tantos otros que lo hablan y lo transforman hoy. El espa\u00f1ol que habla esta inmensa cantidad de gente no es, en efecto, el mismo.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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It\u2019s been long since we realized that the language, more than something completely abstract, actually seems to take the shape of a savage animal, and as such, it changes, grows and evolves. Is it possible to tame this beast? Good luck to those who dare to try! Once in the cage, it\u2019ll change its features. Just observing its beauty will be surely the best way to avoid wasting time splitting hairs by pointing out which is the best and most accurate way to speak the language of (Federico Garc\u00eda) Lorca, the same one that (Octavio) Paz used in his versions and diversions and in which (Jorge Luis) Borges showed his clever modesty. It is the same language so many people use and change today. The Spanish that this large amount of people speak is not the same.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This same idea is backed up by Viviana Mejenes-Knorr, who wrote as guest editor on the blog Lexiophiles [es]<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Como cualquier otra lengua ampliamente hablada, el espa\u00f1ol no es uniforme; en cada pa\u00eds hispanohablante y en cada una de sus regiones, se le a\u00f1aden sazones gramaticales que crean una colorida gama socioling\u00fc\u00edstica con rasgos l\u00e9xicos \u00fanicos, adem\u00e1s de agregarle diversidad a la pronunciaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Like any widely-spoken language, Spanish is not uniform. In every Spanish speaking country and its regions, new grammatical flavours are added, and this creates a colourful socio linguistic range with unique lexical features and new diversities in pronunciation.<\/div>\n

Other phenomena explored in the blogosphere is the Spanish used in United States. From Argentina, Pedro Ylarri writes in his Blog del Medio [es]<\/em><\/a> a review of a new encyclopedia of Spanish in USA, which he considers a turning point in the study of this language inside the country. Pedro underlines the study of the influence of youth and its role in this evolution through technology and also gives his thoughts around the expansion of the language through culture, literature and media:<\/p>\n

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Junto a los medios de comunicaci\u00f3n, la producci\u00f3n cultural plasma el empuje del espa\u00f1ol en todos sus \u00e1mbitos: revistas literarias, cuentos, poes\u00eda, teatro, m\u00fasica\u2026, toda manifestaci\u00f3n art\u00edstica es rastreada hist\u00f3ricamente hasta nuestros d\u00edas, seg\u00fan distintas nacionalidades y corrientes.<\/p>\n

Ante el mundo de la novela, por ejemplo, Mercedes Cortazar y Eduardo Lago nos presentan una perspectiva complementaria, coloc\u00e1ndonos respectivamente ante la pista de las posibilidades de la narrativa escrita en espa\u00f1ol en Estados Unidos, as\u00ed como ante la existencia de multitud de escritores hispanos que se expresan en ingl\u00e9s.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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With the mainstream media, the cultural production captures the force of the Spanish in all its spheres: literary magazines, short stories, poetry, theatre, and music\u2026 All artistic expressions are tracked historically to our days, according to the different nationalities and movements.<\/p>\n

In the literary world, for example, Mercedes Cortazar y Eduardo Lago (among other Hispanic writers expressing themselves in English) present a complementary perspective and they give us the clue on the possibilities of Spanish narrative in the States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Posting now from the Philippines, Manolo P\u00e9rez<\/a>, a blogger from Spain, observes with fascination the presence of his language in what he considered a far away land:<\/p>\n

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Realmente el espa\u00f1ol nunca se ha ido de Filipinas, se habla poco pero permanece en las lenguas locales y, sobre todo, en la Historia y en los archivos de este pa\u00eds, en su literatura, etc. M\u00e1s que de la vuelta del espa\u00f1ol hay que hablar de la vuelta de la ense\u00f1anza del espa\u00f1ol.<\/p>\n

Este sigue siendo un pa\u00eds de sorpresas y para un espa\u00f1ol m\u00e1s.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The Spanish language never left the Philippines. It\u2019s not widely spoken, but it still seen in local languages and, most of all, in the history of the country and its literature. More than the return of the Spanish, we should discuss more the return of this language in education.<\/p>\n

This is a country full of surprises, even more for a Spaniard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Conquest of the Spanish Language and its “Adoption” in the New World<\/strong><\/p>\n

For others in Latin America, one's mother tongue is relative. A brief historical review is summarized in Salon Hogar [es]<\/a> about this spread of the Spanish language in a region where many languages had already been present. The diversity of languages in America was -and still is- immense. Some authors point out that this continent is the most fragmented, from the linguistic point of view, with more than a hundred families of languages, inside which there are also tens or even hundreds of dialects and languages. Nonetheless, some of the most important languages coming from indigenous communities are still alive, given the number of speakers or its influence in the Spanish. Languages like Nahuatl, Taino, Maya, Quechua, Aymara, Guarani and Mapuche are some of the most important examples.<\/p>\n

When Christopher Columbus arrived to America in 1492, the Spanish language was already consolidated in Iberian Peninsula and it started a new process in the New World with the crossbreeding and the influence of the Catholic Church. The mixture was very complex, given the diversity, not only of the indigenous communities, but also that of the Spanish that settled in the land.<\/p>\n

Many groups are promoting the preservation of their native languages, for example the blog Information Mapuche Chile [es]<\/a>; in which it is underlined the importance of maintaining of indigenous languages:<\/p>\n

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La oportunidad de utilizar y transmitir el pensamiento y tradiciones en sus lenguas originarias representa no s\u00f3lo un derecho cultural, sino que una herramienta esencial para asegurar el conocimiento de los derechos humanos. Seg\u00fan datos de la UNESCO, el 90% de todas las lenguas del mundo desaparecer\u00edan en los pr\u00f3ximos 100 a\u00f1os.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The opportunity to use and transmit thoughts and traditions in its original languages represents not only a cultural right, but also an essential tool to ensure the access and acquaintance of Human Rights. According to UNESCO, 90% of all languages in the world would disappear in the next 100 years.<\/div>\n

In the blog Espacio Verde [es]<\/em><\/a>, a Mexican community working for environmental development, a video is shared in which is seen the linguistic richness of the country.<\/p>\n

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Also, communities like Jaqi-Aru<\/a>, a group of multilingual bloggers in El Alto, Bolivia , are engaged to the promotion of Aymara language in Internet. This group is devoted, thus, to protect the evolution of their own language. Through translation projects and blogging in their native tongue<\/a>, Jaqi-Aru looks to contribute with the enrichment of the Aymara language in cyberspace.<\/p>\n

In the end, UNESCO's celebration aims to promote the value of each language resulting in the intercultural exchanges. As language represents a cultural door to a new way of thinking and an interpretation of the world. Its main objective is to respect and promote the conservation of such expressions and give them a space in a world that, now more than ever, needs to exchange views, thoughts and grow in its intercultural relations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNESCO invites the world to celebrate the International Mother Language Day annually on February 21 to encourage all communities to “promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.” According to Ko\u00efchiro Matsuura, former UNESCO Director-General: …Languages constitute an irreducible expression of human creativity in all its diversity. Tools of communication, perception and reflection, they also shape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}