Mother tongue as a universal human right

Abstract

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the right to freedom of opinion and expression. UN Resolution A/RES/61/266 called upon Member States “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world”. This resolution has particular relevance for minority language groups where mother tongue – so vital to self-expression – is primarily a spoken medium, often ascribed low status. With few fluent readers and writers, and a consequent dearth of written resources, a vicious circle develops and linguistic and cultural heritage erodes. Not all governments are vigilant with appropriate policies and funding. Even in a community like Shetland, where there is no class connotation associated with speaking Shetlandic, the proportion of fluent dialect speakers is now relatively small. It therefore falls to the writer to create resources for children, to help stem the tide. Engaging in translation can also help raise the status of dialect and pinpoint the somewhat arbitrary distinction between dialect and language. There are many problems in publishing in minority tongues; for example, uneconomic print runs, language authenticity versus contemporaneity, standardisation of orthography and the trend to “exotic-ise” dialect in mainstream literature.

Keywords:

• Article 19
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• United Nations
• mother tongue
• multilingual
• bilingual
• dialect

Declaration of interest

There are no real or potential conflicts of interest related to the manuscript.