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Key Points
- The UN International Mother Language Day highlights the importance of preserving ‘mother tongues’ throughout the world.
- Languages such as Kurdish and Assyrian face greater challenges because there is no official state.
- Community initiatives such as weekend schools and cultural celebrations are key ways to keep languages spoken in the diaspora, say experts.
“Currently, 40 per cent of the global population lacks access to education in their native language, a figure that exceeds 90 per cent in certain regions,” the UN said.
“While maintaining minority languages can be harder, particularly if the state is actively hostile to speakers, it can also be an advantage because speakers of minority languages have always had to be bi- and multi-lingual and they know that languages are not an ‘either-or proposition’.”
Speakers of minority languages have always had to be bi- and multi-lingual and they know that languages are not an ‘either-or proposition’.
Linguistics Professor Ingrid Piller, Macquarie University
Teaching Assyrian takes a ‘community effort’
This meant the language was not taught in schools or used in business settings so had to be maintained and preserved largely through home learning, he said.
Sydney’s four Saturday Schools teaching Assyrian have proven popular among parents and children with 1,000 students currently attending each week. Credit: Ninos Emmanuel
According to the 2021 Census, close to 60,000 Assyrians/Chaldean reported using their language at home.
“The Assyrians call their language ‘lishana d’yimma’ (mother language) because they learned it from their mothers,” Darmo said.
Since the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 612BCE, the Assyrians have not had a national home of their own where they would be taught the Assyrian language at school.
Philip Darmo
Darmo said the Assyrian community played a major role in keeping the mother language alive. In Sydney, for example, the Assyrian community has been running Saturday language classes for the past 50 years.
Children attend ‘Saturday School’ in Sydney to keep their Assyrian language skills alive. Credit: Ninos Emmanuel
“Today, we have four such ‘Saturday Schools’ in Sydney where close to 1000 children receive tuition in their mother language for about three hours per week,” he said.
He said key to keeping the language alive was making, “Assyrian people feel proud of their history, culture, literature and traditions.”
The first broadcaster of the SBS Assyrian program, Philip Darmo. Credit: Hammurabi Barhy
“There are all sorts of ways one can make Assyrian people feel proud of their history, culture, literature and traditions. One of them is the utilisation of broadcasting media such as SBS audio and television where Assyrian history and culture can be promoted,” he said.
Graduates of the Assyrian Nissibin School in Sydney. Credit: Ninos Emmanuel
“Another channel would be the promotion of maintaining connections with the motherland such as the Gishru (Bridge) Program. Another way is the establishment of Assyrian Youth Movements who would maintain connections with similar organisations in the homeland and in Europe and North America. Yet another way would be the full utilisation of social media.
The Assyrian language is part of Semitic languages including Hebrew and Arabic. Assyrian is written from right to left. It is a cursive script where some, but not all, letters connect within a word. The alphabet consists of 22 letters, all of which are consonants. Some letters change their sound by adding a dot on the top or bottom of the letter.
‘Very few Kurds are literate in their own language’
Founder and former SBS Kurdish executive producer, Chahin Baker, said, “Keeping the language facilitates keeping ties with the old country and members of the family there.”
Founder of the SBS Kurdish program, Chahin Baker. Source: Supplied
“It may also be enjoyed when used by those who speak (different) languages. Being bilingual has many advantages.”
