In 1999, the UNESCO General Assembly proclaimed 21 February the International Mother Language Day.

The Serbian language and Cyrillic alphabet are the most significant issues of Serbian identity.

That is why their nurturing is a foundation of the cultural, national and spiritual being of Serbs.

The Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska, Željka Stojičić, pointed out the importance of nurturing the Serbian language.

‘Everyone whose mother language is Serbian is equally invited to take care of it and to preserve the Cyrillic alphabet, because by nurturing the mother language we nurture our own roots and take care of the awareness of the generations to come as the future guardians of our heritage’, said Stojičić.

She pointed out that the Law on Protection, Preservation and Use of the Language of the Serb People and the Cyrillic Alphabet, adopted last year, defined the Serbian language and the Cyrillic alphabet as intangible cultural asset of exceptional importance for the Republic of Srpska, and the method of social care was determined for protection and preservation of the language of the Serb people and the Cyrillic alphabet.

On the occasion of Mother Language Day, the Director of the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Arnaud Gouillon, announced opening of additional Serbian language schools in Austria and the United States of America.

‘For the first time, according to the official curriculum of the Republic of Serbia, schools for Serbian children will start in the USA, i.e. in Chicago, Milwaukee, Arizona and Dallas. That there is interest in Serbian language schools in America, we saw from the contacts with our people at the recently held diaspora gathering in Washington’, said Gouillon.

On the occasion of Mother Language Day, Serbian Cultural and Educational Society Prosvjeta Austria addressed an appeal to the public for equality of the Serbian language in Austria. Austrian schools offer the opportunity to learn the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian language.

Source: RTRS-SRNA-Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region-RASEJANJE.INFO

Photo: Government of the Republic of Serbia