On the occasion of UNESCO International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2023, Manchester City of Languages in partnership with MACFEST and Manchester City of Literature hosted an online panel discussion on the topic ‘How and why should we protect multilingualism?’ The event was part of the programme of this year’s IMLD events in Manchester but reached out to an international audience and featured an international group of panellists: We spoke to Francesca La Morgia, linguist and co-founder of Mother Tongues Ireland, based in Dublin; Daniel Kaufman, linguist and founder of the Endangered Language Alliance based in New York; Kamal Kelzi, student and Dom language activist and researcher, based in Gothenburg; and Anjum Malik, writer and lecturer in creative writing and one of Manchester’s Multilingual City Poets, based in Manchester. The discussion was moderated by Yaron Matras, linguist co-founder of City of Languages and former Professor of Linguistics at the University of Manchester where he founded and led the Multilingual Manchester project. The discussion touched on the significance of celebration and the importance of relating it to everyday multilingual experiences including those that represent the outcome of language hierarchies and colonial attitude; the focus on language as a human right; and the meaning of notions like ‘mother tongue’ and ‘native language’ in a world of mobility and fluctuating language repertoires.

You can view the event here