We must celebrate International Mother Tongue Day enthusiastically to demonstrate that love our own language even though we might be proficient in several languages, said the Pakistan language expert here on Wednesday.
National Language Authority (NLA) chairman Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik said while talking to the Business Recorder on the importance of the day. The International Mother Tongue Day, which will be universally celebrated across the world on the direction of Unesco on Thursday.
In 1993, Unesco declared February 21 as the world mother tongue day on the recommendation of Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, because the day has an international significance due to the on-going process of globalisation. Globalisation tends to stress only languages with economic potential for gathering money, and because of it, regional languages were decaying.
Dr Rahman reported that 600 world languages have become extinct, and many more and more are going down. He has proved in the books that he has written that economic activities have a connection with languages. People tend to learn only those languages in which they get jobs, he said.
The development of native languages is important; its linkage with official use is important for common man to retain their love for their own language. 'Otherwise the people would disregard their own tongue and discourage their children to learn them because of its low economic value in getting employment'.
Lawmakers elected on Monday (February 18) have a new agenda waiting for them and it is to strengthen the 18 native as well as the national languages Urdu, in accordance with the 1973 Constitution. Professor Malik repeated that he was making this statement after consulting provincial national language organisations charged with development of Baloch, Pashto, Punjabi, and Sindhi and other native languages across the country.
The idea behind the creation of Pakistan was to uplift all languages of the country including Urdu, and the national languages owe its origin to the contribution of other languages, he observed. He elaborated the point further, that local elates in all places within the country were discovering their identity after promoting root languages and after employing it in advancing self-expression, as well as writing prose and poetry in vernacular languages.
At the same time, the public was also using Urdu as a native language also. Malik explained the term 'native language' was used for possessing the best language skill. National language as well as 18 provincial languages of the country were mutually enriching each other. This could be ascertained from 'the increasing number of publication of mutual translation from one language of Pakistan to another. Professor Malik added.
In this regard, he referred to today's celebration of Shah Abdul Latif in Sindh. It was a tribute to Shah Latif but also a celebration of Sindhi mother tongue, since Shah Abdul Latif was the best symbol for the development of this proficient language, and this is reflected in the following bait (poetry) from the great Shah:
-- Kabhi vahdat ki ektai main kasrat
-- Kabhi kasrat ki pinhi main vahdat
-- Magar eh vahdat o kasrat ka aalam
-- Bas ek husn haqiqat ki haqiqat.