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Indigenous languages threatened
22/02/2008 12:45 - (SA)
Eric Lubisi
Bushbuckridge - South Africa's indigenous languages may disappear because people have become reluctant to speak their mother tongues, warns chief director for special projects in Mpumalanga's Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation, Fasters Magagula.
Addressing an event in Bushbuckridge to mark International Mother Language Day on Thursday, he said the department was encouraging writers to write in their mother tongue and was lobbying for sign language to include indigenous languages.
"We also need to encourage our youth to study our own languages so that they could be able to teach the languages to future generations," said Magagula.
He said the department would conduct ongoing awareness campaigns through various language structures as part of the National Language Policy Framework for South Africa.
"We know that we are faced with the challenge of young people who are reluctant to express themselves in indigenous languages or to register for language studies at institutions of higher learning," he said.
The United Nation's Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) declared February 21 International Mother Language Day in 1999.
According to a Unesco study, about 50% of the 6 700 languages spoken in the world face extinction if people continue to ignore their mother tongue.
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