World Mother tongue day; how relevant is the mother tongue
– Steve Ovirih
Every 23rd of February is set aside globally to celebrate the world mother tongue day by United Nations. This is a step in the right direction as it underscores the importance of world indigenous languages across the globe.
In Nigeria and other part of the world, English Language has been adopted as the official language of business and Communication. What this implies is that the medium for teaching and learning in schools, the register of information dissemination and everything official is done in English Language.
It is instructive to note that we started learning English Language as the Lingual franca from the cradle. That nothwithstanding , we are not to treat our individual languages as a second language. The obvious is that indigenous languages are going into extinction because of the over concentration of the society on the use of English Language for everyday communiaction.
We must note with all sense of seriousness that our mother tongue and the dialectal varieties must be seen as our pride and must be given prominence just like the foreign language we tend to hold in high esteem.
We must not forget our local languages because they are the medium that reflects our origin. In the popular Yoruba maxim which gives a strong counsel, ” eni to ba so ile nu ti so apo iya ko.”
Parents who are more British than the English folks, who are peevish and irritated when their wards revert to the mother tongue to communicate should learn that any culture which discourages the use of individual languages to communicate ideas will die and when a people’s language dies, all is lost.
Beyond paying lip service to encouraging communiaction in mother tongue, government should make compulsory the learning of an indigenous language both in the primary and secondary schools. It is unfortunate that Yoruba Language is no longer a compulsory language in schools in Nigeria, while United States of America is investing hugely in the teaching of Yoruba Language among their students through the Fullbright Foreign Language Program.
While an attempt is not made to undermine perfect teaching of English Language and qualitative spoken and written communication in Queen’s English, the indigenous languages should not be pushed to the background. The difference between technological advancement in Asia and Africa is that the former acquires formal training in techy advancement in their mother tongue while the latter sees every ounce of technological knowledge through the prism of English Language.
From the ancient time and up till now, a society grows at the rate their respective languages grow.
