International Mother Language Day to revive our language and identity

QAMISHLI, Syria – On 21 February, people around the world celebrate International Mother Language Day. The celebration of mother tongues holds special significance to those peoples who languages have been criminalized, stigmatized, and are in need of revival. It is for these reasons that the day is an important one for speakers of Syriac, an ancient language of Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia) dating back millennia.

A dialect of Middle Aramaic, Syriac (also known as Classical Syriac, Syro-Aramaic, and Syriac Aramaic) is first recorded in the 1^st century A.D. in the ancient city of Edessa (modern day Urfa, Turkey).

On this day, the Syriac people celebrate their ancient language and its regional and historic significance as the basis for many other languages, including Arabic.

In an interview with SuroyoTV, Mr. Jalinos Eissa, teacher and Co-Chair of Olaf Taw Institute, a Syriac language academy, emphasized the importance of the day. “On International Mother Language Day, we congratulate all the people who revive their mother language,” said Eissa. “It is the secret of their identity and their survival in their homeland.”

“We as Syriac people are rooted in the area of ​​Beth Nahrin,” Eissa continued,” where the Syriac language was the original language. We know that people from all over the world used to come to the Syriac institutes and universities like Nusaybeen and Qanishreen, from which Syriac scholars and writers graduated, such as Mor Aphrem and Mor Yaqoub al-Rahawi.”

The region, its language, and its universities helped to preserve historical Greek texts and the knowledge contained within them, explained Eissa. “Intellectuals who studied the sciences, literature, astronomy, and history documented these sciences [in Syriac]. In addition to some doctors, such as Hanin Isaac, who translated Greek books of medicine into the Syriac and Arabic languages.”

“We, as Olaf Taw Foundation, are concerned with developing the Syriac language, establishing Syriac institutes, and supervising the preparation of books in the Syriac language, in addition to preparing textbooks from the primary grade to the secondary grade (baccalaureate)” Eissa said about the role of the Olaf Taw Foundation’s role in preserving and reviving the Syriac language.

“We must preserve our Syriac language and teach it to our children correctly without introducing strange terms to it,” stated Eissa. “We should also pay attention to printing books in the Syriac language in the Western and Eastern dialects. Moreover, we should always strive to raise the value of our Syriac language and make it among the international languages.”