February is almost done and dusted and the year 2020 is well on its way. February is usually known as the month of love, thanks to Valentines Day and though we hope that everyone enjoyed the 14th of February with their loved ones, there is one other important day we should not forget: International Mother Language Day.

In South Africa we are privileged to have 11 official language which serves as the Mother Language for a variety of cultures and here at SADiLaR we are even more privileged to have researches working with each of these Mother Languages.

Here in the communication office we are always on the go, but we are definitely missing our fearless leader, Liane van den Bergh. Keep an eye out for an update on her and her new baby boy later in the newsletter.

March is around the corner and there are exciting times to come. Enjoy the last week of February and good luck with a busy March ahead!

Warm Regards

The Communication Team

International Mother Language Day Event

On the 21st of February 2020, SADiLaR once again collaborate with the NWU School of Languages in celebrating International Mother Language day. The day was a huge success due to SADiLaR's dedicated researches. Some of our researchers teamed up with students to compile a 60 second crash course in the specific languages, whereas other researchers teamed up with lecturers from the NWU to promote their Mother Language. All 11 official languages of South Africa were presented on this day as well as other International languages such as France, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish. This event took place in front of building E9, which is the NWU's Language building. Afterwards some of the SADiLaR researchers appeared at the prize giving of articles submitted by students in their Mother Language. SADiLaR would like to thank each and every person that was involved with the event. Without dedicated researchers and personal this say would not have been possible.

Mother Language Day Interview: Phathuthedzo Ramukhadi

In the spirit of International Mother Language Day, we decided to use the next few months of 2020 to do a few interviews with our SADiLaR researchers about their Mother Languages and the projects they have in mind for these languages. For February we spoke to Mr Phathuthedzo Ramukhadi, who is our Tshivenda researcher.

Mr. Ramukhadi says that his long term goal for his Tshivenda research is to digitize Tshivenda books that are currently being used at the University of Limpopo. He says it is very important for people to actively use and speak their Mother Language, because if the speakers of the language does not promote it, who will? 

"On social media and other platforms, we tend to stick to English, because that is what everyone understands, but how will we introduce others to our Mother Language, if we do not use it?" 

He says the power of a language lies in the hands of its speakers and these speakers, especially if it is your Mother Language, have the responsibility to make sure that they actively keep their language alive.

Other February News