Preserving mother’s tongue
How glib are you in your mother tongue? How proud are you about it? Do you know how to read or write in your mother tongue? Can your children’s speak their mother tongue? Or even, is your mother tongue dead or alive? Globally today, it is an irrefutable fact that the steady demise of mother […]
How glib are you in your mother tongue? How proud are you about it? Do you know how to read or write in your mother tongue? Can your children’s speak their mother tongue? Or even, is your mother tongue dead or alive? Globally today, it is an irrefutable fact that the steady demise of mother tongue is the most palpable sign of a severe human predicament. Every language spoken in the world represents a unique culture, melody, colour, and benefit and to everyone, the mother language is unquestionably one of the most valuable treasures in our lives. It’s our obligation and duty to safeguard it and pass it down from generation to generation.
Mother tongue is one of the most authoritative tools used to safeguard and convey culture and cultural ties. Children who are uninformed of their culture, their language and their history will lose confidence in themselves, the family, society and the nation to which they belong and will have no other option than seeking an alternate identity.
A child will identify himself or herself with the language and culture he knows best. For this reason, the attitudes and beliefs of parents are so imperative in this aspect. If they want to thwart this from happening they should find ways to help their children uphold and improve their mother language without neglecting to give affirmative messages and keeping optimistic attitudes about other cultures. We must not also forget to teach our children to learn about other cultures and respect them as well. Hundreds of our languages are teetering on the verge of annihilation, and we may lose more than just words if we allow them to die out.
The death of a language is worse than the burning of a dictionary whose backup is not available anywhere, not even in person’s mind. When a language dies it means a whole culture in its totality has died; a whole community suffers an irreversible loss as it has no option than to humbly submit to some other community, culture, tradition, norms and language. When languages fade so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity. It hurts in no way if a pupil is able to speak several languages. Actually, the more the languages one knows in the present world, the better.
It’s an undeniable fact that nowadays many youngsters fail to communicate a sentence in their language without using English or other people tribe. This is a proof that we cannot embrace who we are and where we come from. There’s a failure to create a source of inspiration and pride to carry our mother tongue to greater heights. Our languages are also dependent on where we are in the country. Some out of sheer ignorance regarded their own language as inferior while others seek to preserve, protect, proud and promote their own language and culture; others abandon their mother tongue and join others to preserve theirs. Our present is shaped by our past and the future we will bequeath to future generations is being crafted by our actions in the present. Until such time that our mother tongues are equally used, spoken and preserve will save it from going extinction and losing our identity. After reading this piece, think of your friends, close relatives and your neighbours children that can’t speak their language and I dare you to say the names of the ten local foods or count from one to ten in your mother tongue.
Ibrahim Muye Yahaya, Muye, Niger State, [email protected]