First promoted by the United Nations’ cultural organisation UNESCO in 1999, International Mother Language Day was formally recognised by the UN General Assembly in 2008. The assembly’s resolution called on all its member states “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world“. Without measures to protect and promote minority languages, half of the languages spoken today might disappear within 50 years.
International Mother Language Day has been celebrated every year since 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. It originated from international recognition of Language Movement Day, the only event in contemporary history where people lost their lives to assert the right to use their native language. On 21 February 1952, four university students were killed by the Pakistani police and army in Dhaka (former Pakistan, Bangladesh nowadays) during the Bengali Language Movement. The students were campaigning to be given the right to use officially their mother language – Bengali/Bangla.
EVS Translations has a wide variety of mother languages among its in-house staff. In 2012, translations were made in a total of 143 language combinations. So today, as every day it is International Mother Language day at EVS Translations.
