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The Importance of Preserving Native Languages

Team StoryWeavers|June 08, 2022, 11:32 IST| 70

Have you ever tried talking to a toddler? If yes, you may have noticed that they respond to you in a language of their own. Have you wondered how they learned to respond like that? Research shows that mother tongue is the first language babies learn while they are still inside the womb. It’s the language they grow up knowing and communicating with the world.

As we grow up, we may learn different languages but the comfort of talking in our mother tongue (which can also be their native language) is unmatchable. Furthermore, mother tongue plays an important role in building our personality and influencing our cultural identity.

Why do languages die?

With the advent of globalization, it has become imperative for us to explore foreign languages. But that should not push us to alienate our native languages. Languages are not only a medium of communication but are also powerful tools for preserving our culture and heritage.When a language dies, a part of the culture also dies with it.

Did You Know?

When Boa Sr, the last living member of a 65,000-year-old tribe in the Andaman Islands died in 2010, it was the end of Aka-Bo, one of the world’s oldest languages.

 

The impact of globalization is such that the indigenous people, also known as the First Nations’ people, have either lost or are in grave danger of losing their mother tongue. According to a UN report, at least 43 percent of the 6000-plus languages spoken around the world are endangered. In India alone, there are around 600 potentially endangered languages.

To prevent languages from becoming extinct, the UN introduced the International Mother Language Day in 1999. It is celebrated every year on February 21. The day also commemorates the death of four students who lost their lives fighting for the right to use their mother tongue Bengali in Dhaka.

Nearly half of the world’s 6,500 languages are endangered. Experts predict that by 2050 most of the endangered languages will have become extinct. Let’s explore what we can do to protect our native languages.

  1. Speak in your mother tongue at home with your family and friends. 
  2. Make time to watch (if available) and read stories in your native language. It’s a fact that some of the best literary works were produced by authors in their native language. 
  3. Play the fun game ‘Learn a new word a day’. Learn a new word from an endangered language and share it with your friends.
  4. Ask a native speaker to help you with pronunciation or understanding of words.
  5. Find out how many different languages are spoken in your school or in your neighbourhood.
  6. Be a part of language learning activities.

Every language is like a code. In it, are the myths, lore, stories, and ancient wisdom. Languages have evolved over time but archaic words still exist in the annals of literature, for they are preserved. Speaking of languages have you ever wondered why we have silent letters in English?

Do tell us all about your mother tongue and how has it helped you learn and grow!

 

About the Author


Books are Tanaya Goswami’s first love and cheesecakes come a close second. Talking about movies, music, calligraphy, politics, and Elon Musk will get you listed under the friends’ section of her diary. Ever since moving on from her job as an English lecturer, she spends her time at BYJU’S crafting stories filled with emotion and sprinkled with sarcasm. Outside of work, she’s either learning something new (French, most recently!) or is curled up with a book and a cup of coffee. She firmly believes that discovering what you don’t know is the key to knowledge and is constantly working towards improving herself. Drop in a line at storyweavers@byjus.com if you liked her stories, have something nice to say, or if you have compelling ideas to share!

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Comments



Avinash

April 16, 2019

My mother tongue is Bengali. I am very proud of it.


Thanasree

March 6, 2019

perfect ??


Laasya Sree

March 3, 2019

I learn Sanskrit language in school


Sreekar

February 28, 2019

Telugu is an important in Ap and Ts


sheri

February 28, 2019

I want to be an IAS officer plz write an article?


Vinayakavikhyath

February 27, 2019

That was an interesting matter,mainly the origami bird. Thank you so much BYJU’S


Dhanalakshmi

February 27, 2019

I love my mother tounge?????


Aashi Jayakumar

February 27, 2019

My mother language is Malayalam but I know three more languages now I am trying to learn Sanskrit


Srushti

February 26, 2019

I love my mother?it is really very nice language


Tushar bajaj

February 26, 2019

??Wow! Mine language is hindi


Anushka shreyash shah

February 24, 2019

Marathi as my mother tongue. My mother tongue is sweet to hear speak rich in figures of speech.It has different accent as per different regions still lovable, some times rough, very easy to understand and learn. It has great literature, poems novels. I love my Marathi language and I am proud of it


Divya Dharshini

February 24, 2019

I love my mother language.
Really we want to celebrate the
“International mother language day”


Ranvir Sharma

February 24, 2019

GOOD TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT OUR NATIVE LANGUAGE.


Shivam

February 24, 2019

Soo true but now in present world in the race of success the language english is the most preffered language but it will never competete with mother toungue.
The comfort what we get while speaking our mother toungue doesn’t match with any language.


Malkani Priyanka

February 24, 2019

Best article.
It can help in studies or in some topics.

?????


Adway Chakraborty

February 23, 2019

I am proud to belong to the only language that had blood shed for it’s existence . I am from Kolkata , and my mother tongue is bengali . My mother language has many poems and songs ,even our national anthem by Rabindranath Tagore ,the greatest poet of all time .


Manish Dahite

February 23, 2019

Hi please write a article on our Indian army how sacrifice there
In Pulwama attack the 44 solider how died please write a article for them
Please please please please mam


Prachi Mishra

February 23, 2019

#thanks a lot byjus #thanks a lot for the learning tree????:):)


Ishwari kadu

February 23, 2019

Thanks byjus for such a interesting and knowledgeable fact about our mother tongue. Thanks a lot! ☺☺


Daphne

February 22, 2019

Please how can I improve my path to achieve my doctor goal,


Shagun

February 22, 2019

Thanks for the information ??


Samiksha Kahali

February 22, 2019

My mother tongue is Bengali and I am very proud to say that I have got such a cultural and famous mother tongue. And I say all the mother tongue are equally important for the Indians. Thanks byjus for such a lovely information ??


Ankeeta

February 22, 2019

My mother tongue is odia and I am from odisha.I love my mother tongue. Everyone should respect their mother tongue and also learn it. Some of my friends doesn’t know their mother and are unable communicate with others in that language mostly with their grandparents and I feel very sad for then so slowly but I am trying to encourage them trying to make them talk in their mother tongue.


Sivani

February 22, 2019

My mother language is ahom and I’m trying to learn ahom language from YouTube because this is not used by our ancestors


shubham

February 22, 2019

My mother tongue is gujrati which is one of the oldest ever in the india. I will never forget my mother tongue. Its a proud to have such a cultured language. Everyone should respect their mother tongue and lead a happy life


Shraddha

February 22, 2019

My mother tongue is Marathi. And I believe that every language is
Very important for my country……….?????????
And thanks Byjus for knowledge…………..


Gayatri

February 22, 2019

My mother tongue is Kannada. I always love to speak kannada with my family and friends. I am really very proud of kannada.


Mariyam Thahira

February 22, 2019

Hey Tanaya! Just wanted to appreciate your efforts… I love reading your articles. They’re almost always enlightening and entertaining. To help us appreciate literature, science and other aspects of knowledge simultaneously, they’ve been efficient tools. Much respect!


S.Swarupa???

February 22, 2019

Yep….It’s absolutely true.I Just love my mother tongue❣️❣️.There is nothing better than it,atleast to me.??


lakshmi

February 22, 2019

Thank you for the information.


Jesvi Maria

February 22, 2019

Yes Byjus,we will always protect our native language.
Thank you so much??


Mansi

February 22, 2019

Its important for all learn our mother tongue language. Thanks for providing us the importance of mother language
I wish all mothers in the world . A very very happy international mother language day. ???


Manisha

February 21, 2019

My mother tongue is Telugu .
But I don’t know how to speak it,except few common words
But I am learning to speak Telugu with the help of my mummy
Although I find it difficult to speak few words but at the same time it’s give
me immense pleasure.


Saatviki Chawla

February 21, 2019

Thank you team byju’s for sharing this information. I didn’t know about this earlier ?


Saatviki Chawla

February 21, 2019

Thank you team byju’s for sharing information about international mother language day.I didn’t know about it earlier??


Isha

February 21, 2019

I’m learning German right now and Hindi is my mother tongue. While learning German I realised that I’m taking so much effort to learn a foreign language when I myself have started to find it a bit hard to speak Hindi continuously for long. It’s crazy how language starts drifting away from us and we don’t even realise it!


Dhruvraj Singh Shekhawat

February 21, 2019

It’s good to know about the language which we have forgotten . Nice information .


Vaibhav singh

February 21, 2019

Quiet informative and interesting……………………………

Thank you byjus for sharing great knowledge………


Esha Bhattacharya

February 21, 2019

Thank you BYJU’s. It was indeed a wonderful article. The mother languages are of great significance since they are the first stepping stone towards our speech. To me, it is one of the inherent traditions. Loved the article! Hope to read some more articles as such.


Riddhiman Dutta

February 21, 2019

I love my mother tongue Bengali


Hinal patel

February 21, 2019

Thanks for this most important information


Hinal patel

February 21, 2019

Thanks for this most important information
About the mother tongue and world’s all
Language


Kanak wasankar

February 21, 2019

Byju’s learning application is the best for learning which helps me to study well and remember all the things
Properly during exams


Swasti

February 21, 2019

We should respect our mother tongue and should talk to our family in our basic language.
Mother tongue is something in which we can express our every single thought or opinion.
Thanks byju’s for this beautiful message which is really important for our developing youth as they should know the importance of our mother tongue


Afifa Kaisar

February 21, 2019

I too ❣️?❣️


Swasti

February 21, 2019

Nice message
We should respect our mother tongue and should talk to our family in our basic language.
Mother tongue is something in which we can express our every single thought or opinion.
Thanks byju’s for this beautiful message which is really important for our developing youth as they should know the importance of our mother tongue


Barira Mahewash

February 21, 2019

Thanks byju’s learning tree ? for sharing information about native language.???I love ???? you byju’s team ???.


Rohit Panwar

February 21, 2019

Garhwali is my mother languageand I proud on my language.


Araman Parida

February 21, 2019

Thanks Byjus for giving me such information about the Native languages


V. Pravalika

February 21, 2019

Thank you team Byjus for such information ????


suman reddy

February 21, 2019

its a very good article about preserving languages..
thank you i more information about this topic for my power point presentation ..
thank you


SUBHAM ROY

February 21, 2019

Hello ,byjus iam subham roy
According to me our knowledge about our mother language is very important because, before learning or practicing any other languages we should need learn our mothertounge at first.
Iam also in the favour of an another speaker here named adarsh.
Not only our mother tongue, we should try to make our concepts clear about different languages and etc


Bharath

February 21, 2019

Thanks for the information ???


Sreesini

February 21, 2019

Thanks for information ???


Nirman Deka

February 21, 2019

Thank you for such a wonderful article.
I am a language freak and that’s why learned three foreign languages which includes Russian, Japanese and German. In total I speak 6 languages, Assamese being my mother tongue.


Anusree

February 21, 2019

My mother tounge is telugu. I enjoy speaking telugu at home. I learn a new word everyday from my mother. I live in Tamilnadu but my mother always insists me to speak in telugu and not Tamil.


Jatinmistry

February 21, 2019

What qualifications required to join Indian Airforce,It is my childhood dream and also I am obsessed with it.
Plz help me to accomplish this dream.
-yours faithfully
Jatin Mistry.


Payal

February 21, 2019

Hey!now-a-days I am also learning
my mother tongue i.e, trying to be
better at it’s pronunciation,
because it is said that
Sindhi is more known for it’s
pronunciation part


Praveen singh

February 21, 2019

Very nice app to learning app.


Adarsh

February 21, 2019

I have learnt many things from my mother language , and the special think about it is that whenever I am in a very happy and joy or sad and off mood ever single word at that time that comes out is my mother tongue and lastly I have learnt to be one of the family members.Thanks byjus for such a fantastic fact.


Subha Shree

February 21, 2019

My mother tongue is Tamil which is one of the oldest ever in the world.
I will never forget my mother tongue. Its a proud to have such a cultured language.
Everyone should respect their mother tongue and lead a happy life


Neha

February 21, 2019

Pls would you help me by saying me what I should for interior designer course


Diva

February 21, 2019

Please do write an article about how to join indian navy as an engineer


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