International Mother Language Day: Odisha celebrates Odia language

The celebration of International Mother Language Day on February 21, as decided by the UNESCO to promote the language, becomes all the more important as the Odia language, spoken by about 4 crore people in Odisha, appears to be losing its relevance fast along with several other languages used by tribals.

One of the main reasons for not using Odia at the optimal level as mother language could be attributed to more and more people adopting English language. This aspect has more impact on the relevance of a community, its survival, relationships, unity in society, education and development, besides other aspects of human life. Study of mother language, particularly by children, is necessary as they learn it even while in mother’s womb!

A forum of Odia people, The Intellects organised a three-day conclave on the mother tongue “Amari Bhasa Pathe-3: LangFest 2017”, celebrating the 3rd anniversary of classical status to Odia language and World Mother Tongue Day from February 18 to 20 at the Azad Auditorium in New Delhi.

The LangFest-2017, an initiative by The Intellects, has decided to go for a global focus wherein the emphasis was on the latest trend in local and national language scenarios. It was a three-day affair comprising the best brains and hearts from different parts of the country, who spoke their mind and feeling related to their own languages.

Experts, linguists and domain leaders, youth from all classical languages (Sanskrit, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Odia) along with popular languages like Hindi and English shared their insight in the conclave, said the organisers.

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