The Gurmani Centre for Languages and Literature is delighted to invite you to a celebration of the International Mother Languages Day on Friday, February 24, 2023, from 6:30 pm onwards, at the MCB Auditorium A-13 (formerly NIB), Academic Block. This special celebration of International Mother Languages Day on campus is an inordinate opportunity for you to showcase your linguistic and cultural diversity.

About the Speaker: “Mr. Zubair Torwali” زبیر توروالی

Zubair Torwali is researcher, author, an activist, and educator based in Swat Pakistan. Zubair has published works in English, Urdu, and in the Torwali language. He has authored and supervised several books in and about Torwali. His book in English, Muffled Voices, provides insight into Pakistan’s social, cultural, and political issues. Zubair has more than two dozen research articles to his credit, along with hundreds of articles in the English dailies and weeklies of Pakistan. His forthcoming books are ‘Torwali English Dictionary for Students’, ‘language, culture and ethnicity’, ‘Language endangerment: the state and communities’, ‘Sherbano, a novel in Torwali’, and ‘Orthographical considerations for minority language activists’. He co-founded Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi (IBT), an organization focused on education, development, and the empowerment of the marginalized mountain communities of upper Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, in Pakistan.

Abstract:

Mother languages: significance, endangerment, and revitalization

مادری زبان: اہمیت، خطرہ اور احیاء 

مادری زبان کیوں اہم ہے؟ مٹ جائے تو کیا نقصان ہوسکتا ہے؟ معدومی کے خطرے سے نبرد آزما مادری زبانوں کی تدوین، ترقی اور فروغ کیسے ممکن ہے؟

The program includes an open mic hour where attendees will have the opportunity to share prose or poetry of their choice in their mother tongue. We welcome you to share your linguistic and artistic heritage. This is a chance to connect with others who may come from dissimilar backdrops but have similar fond memories of the cadence of their naani’s favorite expressions, their daada’s favorite stories in that lilted dialect, their amman’s preferred melodious lullaby or even that one expression of reprimand whose essence can simply not be captured by an expletive in English! Let us all work together to keep these fresh in our memories and pass them on to each other—their loss would be the loss of our individual identities and our collective past.

We encourage you to dress up in traditional attire, break into song or dance, read out literary extracts, or come forth with any other artistic expressions representative of the richness of your culture. We hope you can join us for this exciting and spontaneous celebration of your roots and the precious influences your heritage has had on your life.

-The Gurmani Centre has collaborated with the LUMS Culture Society and the Office of Co-Curricular Activities to spotlight the linguistic diversity within the LUMS community. We are appreciative of their support during the planning and execution of this event.