#MotherLanguageDay
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lairnscots.bsky.social
It’s #MotherLanguageDay the day!

Ilka Februar, UNESCO rins their International Mother Language Day campaign tae heize up linguistic diversity.

Oor leids ir pairt o oor identity.

Oor mither tongue maitters.

@scotslanguage.bsky.social @scilt.bsky.social @bilingmatters25.bsky.social
February 21, 2025 at 10:42 AM
thehaitianproject.bsky.social
Bonjou! Happy #MotherLanguageDay! We are proud to share that students study Haitian Kreyòl at Louverture Cleary School─along with English, French & Spanish, graduating fluent in all four! Now that is something to SELEBRE! #InternationalMotherLanguageDay #educationworks #kreyol #creole
February 21, 2025 at 3:59 PM
wikimediauk.bsky.social
🌍🎉 Happy International Mother Language Day! Let’s celebrate the beauty of our diverse languages and cultures by joining our Mini Wiki challenge for February – more info on our blog https://buff.ly/4jCdMWr

#MotherLanguageDay #CelebrateDiversity
Text reading: 'Mini Wiki, easy ways to edit' on a purple background with images from Wikimedia Commons of a man holding binoculars and a blue statue with their arm raised
February 21, 2025 at 10:01 AM
ehesh.bsky.social
1/3 I know I'm a bit late, wanted to share some videos my uni sent out for #InternationalMotherLanguageDay
check out the rests at www.facebook.com/MLIUSON
#MotherLanguageDay
#langsky
#linguistics
www.facebook.com/reel/9191293...
18 reactions | #DiaInternacionaldelaLenguaMaterna | By Maestría en Lingüística - Universidad de Sonora | Facebook
www.facebook.com
February 22, 2025 at 5:25 AM
afzalkhanmcr.bsky.social
On International #MotherLanguageDay, I am celebrating the 200 languages that are spoken in Manchester - making us one of the most linguistically diverse cities in Europe.

I am committed to preserving and promoting linguistic diversity in our great city.
February 21, 2025 at 11:30 AM
patriciapdcosta.bsky.social
Every language matters because every person matters.

#MotherLanguageDay
A heart with banners reads "Every Language Varies, Every Language Changes, Every Language Varies"
February 21, 2025 at 2:46 PM
jederinstitute.bsky.social
🌍 International Mother Language Day

Languages are living libraries - carrying stories, ecological knowledge, cultural memory & identity across generations.

✨ What word or phrase from your mother language has shaped the way you understand the world?

#MotherLanguageDay
February 20, 2026 at 10:00 PM
nila.photo
Since it’s #MotherLanguageDay, thought I’d share something I’ve noticed while trying to improve my Tamil skills. I’ve been reading more Tamil books lately to improve my vocab, & something I’ve come to appreciate is just how descriptive the language is, especially when it comes to nature!
February 21, 2025 at 8:25 PM
colibricollective.bsky.social
🌍💬 Happy International Mother Language Day! At Colibri, we celebrate our roots through Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, and Japanese—languages that connect us to our stories and traditions. 🌱✨Here’s to the power of language in preserving culture!

#MotherLanguageDay #CulturalRoots #DiversityMatters
February 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
unbrussels.org
Multilingual education helps youth learn, connect, and keep languages alive — strengthening identity, inclusion, and opportunity.

On #MotherLanguageDay, UNESCO underscores how youth is key to preserving languages and shaping their future.
on.unesco.org/3wu2QD2
Mother and teenage child doing writen exercises.
February 21, 2026 at 8:53 AM
ldcupenn.bsky.social
Happy International #MotherLanguageDay This year’s theme celebrates youth voices on multilingual education – emphasizing that language is central to identity, learning, well-being and participation in society. Let’s celebrate every language, every voice www.unesco.org/en/days/moth...
International Mother Language Day
21 February
www.unesco.org
February 20, 2026 at 5:41 PM
neveragainnw.bsky.social
The year 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of International Mother Language Day. This day promotes linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
#IMLD2025 #MotherLanguageDay
www.facebook.com/respect.dive...
February 21, 2025 at 10:54 PM
helenelabaleine.bsky.social
Happy international journée de la langue maternelle!

La mienne part en couille 😅

#internationalmotherlanguageday
#motherlanguageday
#JournéeInternationaleDeLaLangueMaternelle
#JournéeDeLaLangueMaternelle
February 21, 2026 at 2:53 PM
eriegaynews.com
🎉🌍 Happy International #MotherLanguageDay! 🌺 Let's celebrate the beauty of our diverse languages & cultures! Today, we honor the rich traditions, stories, and songs that connect us to our roots. Share a phrase in your mother language below! 💬💖 May our voices unite in harmony! #CulturalDiversity
February 21, 2025 at 11:01 AM
asls.org.uk
“Language denialism pits languages against ‘mixed language’/ dialect/ jargon/ lingo/ patois/. It not only creates hierarchy, but also draws a boundary between legitimate and illegitimate speech forms”

Good thread on “language denialism” here
threadreaderapp.com/thread/10985...
Thread by @GJosephRoche: "Today is @UNESCO International & 2019 is the International Year of @iyoil—let’s talk about langu […]" #MotherLanguageDay #IndigenousLanguages #woty #MotherTongueDay
Thread by @GJosephRoche: "Today is @UNESCO International & 2019 is the International Year of @iyoil—let’s talk about language denialism. of linguistic injustice. To put it in context, […]" #Mother...
threadreaderapp.com
May 25, 2026 at 2:35 PM
asls.org.uk
At times, in those last few months,
he would think of a word
and he had to remember the tree, or the species of frog,

the sound denoted…

—John Burnside, “The Last Man to Speak Ubykh“
published in the @lrb.co.uk, August 2002
#poem #poetry #MotherLanguageDay
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v2...
The Last Man to Speak Ubykh John Burnside The linguist Ole Stig Andersen was keen to seek out the remaining traces of a West Caucasian language called Ubykh. Having heard that there was one remaining speaker he set out to find the man and arrived in his village on 8 October 1992. The man had died a few hours earlier. At times, in those last few months, he would think of a word and he had to remember the tree, or the species of frog, the sound denoted: the tree itself, or the frog, or the state of mind and not the equivalent word in another language, the speech that had taken his sons and the mountain light; the graves he swept and raked; the wedding songs. While years of silence gathered in the heat, he stood in his yard and whispered the name of a bird in his mother tongue, while memories of snow and market days, his father’s hands, the smell of tamarind, inklings of milk and blood on a sunlit floor receded in the names no longer used: the blue of childhood folded like a sheet and tucked away. Nothing he said was remembered; nothing he did was fact or legend in the village square, yet later they would memorise the word he spoke that morning, just before he died: the word for death, perhaps, or meadow grass, or swimming to the surface of his mind, that other word they used, when he was young, for all they knew that nobody remembered.
February 21, 2026 at 3:25 PM
asls.org.uk
“An entire system of comharran – Gaelic navigational marks – surrounds the islands… A wealth of knowledge about the creatures which populate these fishing grounds is also encoded within the Gaelic language.”

—by @tonguetiedfilms.bsky.social
#MotherLanguageDay
theconversation.com/how-scottish...
How Scottish Gaelic is helping protect Scotland’s seas
Around 75% of fishermen in the Outer Hebrides speak Gaelic. Their daily use of the language at work helps keep it alive.
theconversation.com
February 21, 2026 at 2:12 PM
asls.org.uk
I mind when I was a bairnie hou ma mither
brocht out ae day a kist o skinklan things,
ferlies I thocht them, ilk mair rare nor anither,
aa kind o gowdies, stanes and chains and rings…

—Douglas Young, “Thesaurus Paleo-Scoticus”
#Scots #poem #poetry #MotherLanguageDay
asls.org.uk/publications...
Thesaurus Paleo-Scoticus Douglas Young I mind when I was a bairnie hou ma mither brocht out ae day a kist o skinklan things, ferlies I thocht them, ilk mair rare nor anither, aa kind o gowdies, stanes and chains and rings, braw orleges that made her guidsire vauntie, auld fallals that belanged her grannie’s auntie. I thocht ma forebears maun be queens and kings, sic sma delytes can mak a bairnie canty. I’m canty yet wi sma delytes, albeid ma baird’s sae black and swack. I ken a thing that’s like a kist o ferlies gif ye read. Frae Jamieson’s muckle buik the words tak wing, auld douce or ramstam, lown or virrfu words, for musardry o thocht or grame o dirds, our forebears useit, to flyte or scryve or sing. I’d wuss to be a falkner o sic birds.
February 21, 2026 at 1:03 PM
asls.org.uk
Nam sheasamh thall aig geat a’ phreiridh,
feur glan fom bhotannan,
lamhan fuar nam phocaidean,
faileadh an dup
gu fann
gu neo-chinnteach
a’ nochdadh mu mo chuinnlean…

—Anne Frater, “Aig an Fhaing”
#Gaelic #poem #poetry

21 Feb is International #MotherLanguageDay
www.unesco.org/en/days/moth...
Aig an Fhaing Anne Frater Nam sheasamh thall aig geat a’ phreiridh, feur glan fom bhotannan, lamhan fuar nam phocaidean, faileadh an dup gu fann gu neo-chinnteach a’ nochdadh mu mo chuinnlean ’s mi a’ coimhead cach cruinn lachanaich le cheile timcheall air an fhaing: a’ bruthadh nan caorach, guthan ard ag eigheachd ’s a’ gearain, ’s a’ gaireachdainn ’s gach druim thugams’ gam ghlasadh a-mach. Mi seasamh, ’s a’ coimhead ’s a’ feitheamh airson facal mo ghluasad gu feum. Mi siubhal gu slaodach a’ cruinneachadh nan uan ’s gan ruagadh romham a-steach gu cach; uain a’ ruith gu meulaich math’r. Boinneagan uisge mar mhillean mialan a’ leum as an dup, agus crathadh cinn nan adharcan fliuch, fuar, feagalach a’ deanamh as. Ceum no dha eile ’s chi mi aodannan nan gair’. Mo lamhan fhin a’ breith air cloimh, faileadh an dup air mo chorragan, peant a’ camharradh mo chasan, poll dubh bog air mo bhotannan ’s mo chanan fhin nam bheul. At the Fank Anne Frater Standing over by the prairie gate with clean grass under my wellies, cold hands in my pockets, the smell of the sheep dip faintly hesitantly coming to my nostrils as I watch the others gathered around the fank and laughing with each other: pushing the sheep, loud voices shouting and moaning, and laughing and all with their backs to me shutting me out. I stand and watch and wait for a word to move me to usefulness. Moving slowly gathering the lambs and driving them before me in towards the others; lambs running to a mother’s bleat. Drops of water jump from the sheep dip like millions of fleas and the horns’ head-shaking, wet, cold, fearful running off. Another step or two and I can see the laughing faces. My own hands holding wool, the smell of sheep dip on my fingers. Paint marking my legs, soft black mud on my wellies and my own language on my tongue.
February 21, 2026 at 1:03 PM
asls.org.uk
Yes, the terms “language” & “dialect” are complicated. The phrase “a language is a dialect with an army & a navy” comes to mind. You might be interested in this 2019 thread about ‘language denialism” by political anthropologist Gerald Roche
threadreaderapp.com/thread/10985...
Thread by @GJosephRoche: "Today is @UNESCO International & 2019 is the International Year of @iyoil—let’s talk about langu […]" #MotherLanguageDay #IndigenousLanguages #woty #MotherTongueDay
Thread by @GJosephRoche: "Today is @UNESCO International & 2019 is the International Year of @iyoil—let’s talk about language denialism. of linguistic injustice. To put it in context, […]" #Mother...
threadreaderapp.com
August 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
asls.org.uk
At times, in those last few months,
he would think of a word
and he had to remember the tree, or the species of frog,

the sound denoted…

—John Burnside, “The Last Man to Speak Ubykh“
in @londonreview.bsky.social, August 2002
A #poem for #MotherLanguageDay
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v2...
The Last Man to Speak Ubykh John Burnside The linguist Ole Stig Andersen was keen to seek out the remaining traces of a West Caucasian language called Ubykh. Having heard that there was one remaining speaker he set out to find the man and arrived in his village on 8 October 1992. The man had died a few hours earlier. At times, in those last few months, he would think of a word and he had to remember the tree, or the species of frog, the sound denoted: the tree itself, or the frog, or the state of mind and not the equivalent word in another language, the speech that had taken his sons and the mountain light; the graves he swept and raked; the wedding songs. While years of silence gathered in the heat, he stood in his yard and whispered the name of a bird in his mother tongue, while memories of snow and market days, his father’s hands, the smell of tamarind, inklings of milk and blood on a sunlit floor receded in the names no longer used: the blue of childhood folded like a sheet and tucked away. Nothing he said was remembered; nothing he did was fact or legend in the village square, yet later they would memorise the word he spoke that morning, just before he died: the word for death, perhaps, or meadow grass, or swimming to the surface of his mind, that other word they used, when he was young, for all they knew that nobody remembered.
February 21, 2025 at 2:35 PM
asls.org.uk
“An entire system of comharran – Gaelic navigational marks – surrounds the islands… A wealth of knowledge about the creatures which populate these fishing grounds is also encoded within the Gaelic language.”

—by @tonguetiedfilms.bsky.social
#MotherLanguageDay
theconversation.com/how-scottish...
How Scottish Gaelic is helping protect Scotland’s seas
Around 75% of fishermen in the Outer Hebrides speak Gaelic. Their daily use of the language at work helps keep it alive.
theconversation.com
February 21, 2025 at 1:16 PM
asls.org.uk
I mind when I was a bairnie hou ma mither
brocht out ae day a kist o skinklan things,
ferlies I thocht them, ilk mair rare nor anither,
aa kind o gowdies, stanes and chains and rings…

—Douglas Young, “Thesaurus Paleo-Scoticus”
#Scots #poetry #MotherLanguageDay
asls.org.uk/publications...
Thesaurus Paleo-Scoticus Douglas Young I mind when I was a bairnie hou ma mither brocht out ae day a kist o skinklan things, ferlies I thocht them, ilk mair rare nor anither, aa kind o gowdies, stanes and chains and rings, braw orleges that made her guidsire vauntie, auld fallals that belanged her grannie’s auntie. I thocht ma forebears maun be queens and kings, sic sma delytes can mak a bairnie canty. I’m canty yet wi sma delytes, albeid ma baird’s sae black and swack. I ken a thing that’s like a kist o ferlies gif ye read. Frae Jamieson’s muckle buik the words tak wing, auld douce or ramstam, lown or virrfu words, for musardry o thocht or grame o dirds, our forebears useit, to flyte or scryve or sing. I’d wuss to be a falkner o sic birds.
February 21, 2025 at 12:50 PM
asls.org.uk
Nam sheasamh thall aig geat a’ phreiridh,
feur glan fom bhotannan,
lamhan fuar nam phocaidean,
faileadh an dup
gu fann
gu neo-chinnteach
a’ nochdadh mu mo chuinnlean…

—Anne Frater, “Aig an Fhaing”
#Gaelic #poetry
21 Feb is International #MotherLanguageDay
Aig an Fhaing Anne Frater Nam sheasamh thall aig geat a’ phreiridh, feur glan fom bhotannan, lamhan fuar nam phocaidean, faileadh an dup gu fann gu neo-chinnteach a’ nochdadh mu mo chuinnlean ’s mi a’ coimhead cach cruinn lachanaich le cheile timcheall air an fhaing: a’ bruthadh nan caorach, guthan ard ag eigheachd ’s a’ gearain, ’s a’ gaireachdainn ’s gach druim thugams’ gam ghlasadh a-mach. Mi seasamh, ’s a’ coimhead ’s a’ feitheamh airson facal mo ghluasad gu feum. Mi siubhal gu slaodach a’ cruinneachadh nan uan ’s gan ruagadh romham a-steach gu cach; uain a’ ruith gu meulaich math’r. Boinneagan uisge mar mhillean mialan a’ leum as an dup, agus crathadh cinn nan adharcan fliuch, fuar, feagalach a’ deanamh as. Ceum no dha eile ’s chi mi aodannan nan gair’. Mo lamhan fhin a’ breith air cloimh, faileadh an dup air mo chorragan, peant a’ camharradh mo chasan, poll dubh bog air mo bhotannan ’s mo chanan fhin nam bheul. At the Fank Anne Frater Standing over by the prairie gate with clean grass under my wellies, cold hands in my pockets, the smell of the sheep dip faintly hesitantly coming to my nostrils as I watch the others gathered around the fank and laughing with each other: pushing the sheep, loud voices shouting and moaning, and laughing and all with their backs to me shutting me out. I stand and watch and wait for a word to move me to usefulness. Moving slowly gathering the lambs and driving them before me in towards the others; lambs running to a mother’s bleat. Drops of water jump from the sheep dip like millions of fleas and the horns’ head-shaking, wet, cold, fearful running off. Another step or two and I can see the laughing faces. My own hands holding wool, the smell of sheep dip on my fingers. Paint marking my legs, soft black mud on my wellies and my own language on my tongue.
February 21, 2025 at 12:42 PM
rcnlibraries.bsky.social
Parlez-vous Français? Cymraeg? Nihongo? We've picked out some fabulous books for #MotherLanguageDay. Just a glimpse of the rare and diverse material held in Europe's largest nursing collections.
Book cover: a black and white image of a nurse wearing a white smock and cap. The page is headed, White Sister 1867-1967. Book cover: a black and white image of a nurse wearing a white smock and cap. The page is headed, White Sister 1867-1967. Book cover: a black and white image of a nurse wearing a white smock and cap. The page is headed, White Sister 1867-1967. Book cover: a cream-coloured fabric cover with an embossed title on the spine, and a piece of Polish folk art embossed on the front. Both are a vibrant red.
February 21, 2026 at 4:55 PM