We launch this site today on 21st February (2021), that is, on the International Mother Language Day (IMLD). The Bangla adjective ekushé translates as “(the) 21st”—the banner carries a graffiti near Dhaka University, Bangladesh. It was indeed on the 21st of February, 1952 that students fighting against language imposition, were killed in police firing at Dhaka University. In 1999, UNESCO declared this day to be the International Mother Language Day, in order to promote, preserve and protect mother languages (tongues).
This collaborative blog is a tribute to ekushé, where the authors celebrate their mother languages by writing on them, preferably from an informed perspective (linguistics, for example). We welcome anyone to write short blog pieces on their language without using any technical terms or references, and limiting their pieces to a maximum of 800 words. Please check out the entries in the blog to see the kind of ‘informed simple tone’ of the short posts that we aim to capture. If you’re interested in contributing a blog piece, please get in touch. Interested authors are invited to pitch their ideas to editor.
Blog Posts
Breakfast in Pajamas: Asking Politely – Part I
Geeta called me up after a really long time, maybe 10 years, it is Covid which has spurned her into action in getting in touch with old acquaintances (who are old!) … Almost at the beginning she had asked me aur bacche? (‘and kids?’) to which…
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BTW, whose mother tongue is it?
This is how the dynamics of power and language plays a significant role in codifying whether a male or female’s variety gets standardarised.
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Thoughts on Mother Tongue Education
Author: B N Patnaik In Odisha, as elsewhere in our country, many language activists and language pedagogists and some intellectuals concerned with the present state of our languages, have been demanding for quite some time that education be imparted in the child’s mother tongue…
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My thoughts need an anchorage and that could be Braille
It is the International Mother Language Day today and here I am talking about ‘Braille’. Let me make it clear at the very inception that no, it is not a language. One might then wonder why talk about it here on this day? Braille…
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Language Convergence Without Yielding Ground
Visitors to Hyderabad are often puzzled when greeted with ‘kyaa honaa (hai)’ by someone at a shop, for instance. Little do they realise that what is asked for is ‘what do you want’ rather than ‘what has to happen to you’, the interpretation expected…
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To Be or Not To Be . . . a Mother Tongue in Nepal
If you head north from, say, Lucknow or Patna or Kolkota even, I can assure you, eventually you will pass into a country, believe it or not, which is not India. A country which is the land of Lord Buddha’s birth , never mind…
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Two Schools and a Border
Do language boundaries overlap with provincial boundaries in India? The answer is, no. We try to define the overlapping zones with bilingual populations. Popular assumptions of language use in different provinces mostly rely on the notion of homogeneity. We assume that two schools located at…
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The Quest To Find “Self”
Although, not in a philosophical way. This quest is simpler* than that. This is a game of hide and seek, borderline sexism, and wordplay. The viewers at home can play along and the best part is, there are no wrong answers. I will tell…
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Why not Bihari?
“You don’t look like a Bihari,” I have heard this often enough to wonder: how a Bihari should look or sound like? What is it that I should do to look like one? Wearing a cotton sari, having a gamcha around my neck, always munching Magahi pan, or talking in…
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The Constitution and Sign Language: Tongue-Tied (or is it Hands-Tied?)
Deaf schools in Nepal, ALL of them, have used Nepali Sign Language as THE medium of instruction since the 1980s
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HOW RUDE!
Aap aur roti loge? (Would you like another Chapati?) I asked an elderly person eating at my table attempting to serve him. He looked at me with eyes wide open and corrected me: Aap aur roti lenge! (Would you like another Chapati!!) The same meaning but…
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Forbidden cups and chipped phrases
Very often we get annoyed at the chaiwala bhaiya for giving chai in chipped cups. Not only this, we prefer to have an unkempt hair style than combing in the broken mirrors. The instant reactions are kyaa hamaari kismat phuuTi (फूटी) hai?” (Is our…
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Get in Touch
Department of Linguistics,
University of Delhi
tanmoy1@gmail.com
ekushé 
I am reminded of Abdul Latif’s words, the famous poet of Bangladesh on this day.
oraa aamaar mukher kothaa
kairaa nite caae
oraa kothaae kothaae sikol podaae
aamar haathe paae…
” They want to snatch the words off my mouth.
They bind me in chains at every word I spout”
Abdul Latif.
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