Today, Friday, 21st February 2020 is International Mother Language Day.
International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on 21st February.
The main purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the awareness of language and cultural diversity all across the world. It was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999.
Since then it is being celebrated every year.
In Ghana, the celebration of International Mother Language Day has not been given the due attention it deserves apparently due to lack of government commitment coupled with poor attitude of Ghanaians towards their own mother languages. Some people even look down upon students studying Ghanaian Languages in our universities.
This situation does not augur well for the development of our local languages. It is worthy to note that available statistics point to the extinction of some Ghanaian languages in the near future. One sure way of promoting a language is to speak it and write it.
However, in Ghana, many people appear to feel shy to speak their own mother language.
Bureau of Ghana Languages, the only government department mandated to write and publish books exclusively in Ghanaian Languages, as a way of promoting our local languages, is unable to deliver effectively because of understaffing, insufficient funds and logistics. Since its establishment in 1951, the Bureau of Ghana Languages has been operating in the eleven Ghanaian languages so far studied in our educational institutions, namely, Akuapem Twi, Asante Twi, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dangme, Ewe, Ga, Gonja, Kasem, Mfantse, and Nzema. However, the once buoyant Department engaged in the development and promotion of Ghanaian Languages is now a pale shadow of its former self.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
