Today is International Mother Language Day (IMLD)! This holiday is celebrated worldwide as the annual observance of the linguistic and cultural diversity and promotes multilingualism:
"First announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in a resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages."
One way to celebrate today is to learn a little more about the study and preservation of languages. Anthropology has helped us helped other cultures by saving their culture. The linguistic subfield of anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology or Linguistics, studies language as a human characteristic. It attempts to explain the differences between the 3,000 different human languages as well as relate the languages to the cultures. Linguistic Anthropology deals with the study of different languages and how they developed and evolved over time. Linguistic Anthropology is also a study of human characteristics and how humans interacted with each other, while also trying to examine the relationship between culture and language.
Franz Boas, one of the founders of American anthropology, saved a native tribe’s language from becoming extinct. It helped us understand that language is not just verbal. Language is a form of communication that can be expressed and aided through the use objects. Moreover, it gave us a greater knowledge to understand the evolution of technology by the use of stone stools for survival which our closest ancestors developed.
We use a very practical implementation of anthropological linguistics which gives you the most important skills in language learning, as:
"Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue." — the United Nations International Mother Language Day
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