IMLD 2014

Our languages are very important and special. They may appear complicated, but such complications make them unique. They have to be empowered to take their place in the league of languages and claim their global citizenship. The 15th edition of the International Mother Language Day is celebrated today, 21st of February 2014. The theme: ‘Local languages for global citizenship: Spotlight on Science’, emphasizes participation in globalization, where ideally such interaction should involve ‘sharing’. If we cannot share because we do not have the tools, then we may end up being colonized again by those who have what to share. Let us therefore empower our languages. Let us do it together because we all have roles to play in the empowerment enterprise. Let us empower them so that we can share them as global citizens, bearing in mind that in the galaxy of languages, every word is a star. Happy International Mother Language Day.

A Blue-print for Parenting

You will recall that it was at the Garden of Eden, that place of extreme grace, that God commanded the first parents – Adam and Eve to be fruitful, fill the earth and govern it. He blessed them and made them masters of all His creation (Genesis 1:28).

LANGUAGE AND BRICKS

The United Nations set aside a day to celebrate linguistic and cultural diversity. This was motivated by the killing of four students in Bangladesh in 1952 for their campaign to use their mother tongue, Bangali, as the official language. Since 1999, following UNESCO’s proclamation of February 21^st as the International Mother Language Day, the idea has been to sensitize public opinion towards mother tongue use on this day.  The celebration also promotes mutual respect based on love of one’s mother tongue. It was in this spirit that we celebrated the 2013 edition of linguistic diversity all over the world with the theme: ‘The Book’.

The Intercessors For Nigeria (IFN) hosts the 32nd National Prayer Conference @ UYO

The Intercessors For Nigeria (IFN), announces its 32^nd National Conference scheduled for 2014. The year 2014 is a very significant year for Nigeria. It is the Centenary year, and in line with the mandate of IFN to serve as watchmen to fulfill God’s purpose for Nigeria, the 32^nd National Prayer Conference is the Centenary Edition.

45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 45)

Call for Papers

45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 45)

The 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics will be held at the University of

Kansas from April 17-19, 2014. The theme of this year’s conference is “Africa’s Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches”. 

Pilgrimage

I derived very great pleasure recently when I was invited to share my thoughts on “Pilgrimage”, by the Akwa Ibom State Pilgrims Board; at a seminar organized to prepare intended Akwa Ibom State Pilgrims for the 2013 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Here is what I told them:

COLANG 2014

Learn new methods and technologies for language documentation and revitalization.
Build skills in collaborative community work.
Network with field linguists and indigenous scholars from all over the world.
Work with indigenous languages of the Americas for field methods.
These, you can do at COLANG2014, Institute on Collaborative Language Research.

              HOST: The University of Texas at Arlington
              DIRECTOR: Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald
              WORKSHOPS: June 16 – 27, 2014
              FIELD METHODS/PRACTICUM: June 30 – July 25, 2014.

CoLang 2014: Institute on Collaborative Language Research
     On the Web:  http://tinyurl.com/colang2014
     On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Colang2014
     On Twitter:    https://twitter.com/CoLang2014
     On Instagram: http://instagram.com/colang2014#

See you there!