World Mother Language Day and our Turkmen language
Every year on February 21, International Mother Language Day is widely celebrated around the world in accordance with the Resolution “International Mother Language Day” proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on November 17, 1999. After that event, since 2000, this holiday has been celebrated annually on the Earth.
On the occasion of this International Day, we have had an interview with Sona Halykova, a third-year student of the faculty of International Journalism of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, who closely related her fate to her mother tongue.
-Sona, I congratulate you on the World Mother Language Day.
-Thank you! In my turn, I sincerely congratulate all our people on this holiday. This particular date reminds us the adoption of the Law on State Language on May 24, 1990, and the new Turkmen alphabet on April 12, 1993. Based on the linguistic doctrine of our esteemed President, a great work is being done in our country to study the Turkmen language in depth. At our institute, we eagerly master the Turkmen language. The publication of the 2-volume book "Explanatory Dictionary of the Turkmen Language" presented by Hero Arkadag supports us in learning the ancient Turkmen language. At this point, I would like to recall the verse lines of the poet Berdinazar Hudaynazarov.
Sen meniň gazabym, sen meniň näzim,
Ýüregimde gaýnap çykýan owazym.
Babalardan miras galan ýalňyzym-
Eziz ene dilim, mähriban dilim.
I also regularly write poems and articles in our mother tongue for “The Voice of a Young Diplomat” newspaper of our institute and for the periodicals.
-Can you tell about the world languages being studied along with our mother tongue in our institute?
-Of course, together with the Turkmen language we also study foreign languages such as Russian, English, Chinese, Persian, Arabic, Japanese, French, German and Turkish. To improve knowledge of the students there are German and Turkish language libraries at our institute.
Taking this chance, we would like to express great gratitude to our esteemed President for the opportunities to study deeply our Mother tongue as well as foreign languages.
-Thank you so much!
Gunça HAMEDOWA,
the 1st year student of the faculty of International Journalism
of the Institute of International Relations
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan