Georgia celebrates Mother Language Day
42 years ago on this day, thousands of Georgians took to the streets of Tbilisi in protest against the Soviet government’s decision to remove words in the Georgian Constitution solidifying Georgian as the state language. Photo: Part from the Georgian alphabet book cover.
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Georgia is celebrating Mother Language Day today, which marks Georgia’s victory over the Soviet repressive machine in maintaining the Georgian language as the country’s official language.
42 years ago on this day, thousands of Georgians took to the streets of Tbilisi in protest against the Soviet government’s decision to remove words in the Georgian Constitution solidifying Georgian as the state language.
On April 14, 1978, an initial march of 15,000 protesters grew to a demonstration involving 100,000 citizens, including students, professors, teachers at a central Tbilisi park – now known as Dedaena Park.
After the protest a special monument was erected honouring the day’s events.
Georgian is written in its own unique writing system and its alphabet has 33 letters. Photo: 1TV.ge.
The Soviet government was forced to retract its decision and retain Georgian as the official state language in Georgia.
This was an unprecedented case when the regime withdrew and backed down to the community’s demands.
The decision by Soviet authorities to revoke the official status of local languages in other, then-Soviet countries was also condemned by the public and resulted in widespread protests in Armenia and a number of Baltic states.
The change was accepted in Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Central Asian Soviet republics.
42 years ago, today, thousands of Georgians showed the entire world how much their language meant to them. Faced with the possibility of losing status as Georgia’s national language, the people of this country persevered and saved their unique language for generations to come”, writes the US Embassy in Georgia on its Facebook page.
British Ambassador to Georgia Justin McKenzie Smith has tweeted:
ქართული ენა ლამაზია.
— Justin McKenzieSmith (@JustinMcKenzieS) April 14, 2020
Georgian is beautiful. #დედაენა #MotherLanguageDay
(მადლობა #TamOonz #Musya) pic.twitter.com/sUwxh0xN4s
Georgian is written in its own unique writing system and its alphabet has 33 letters.
It was granted the national status of cultural heritage in Georgia and was added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2016.
Georgian iconic schoolbook Deda Ena (literally ‘Mother Language’) authored by Georgian writer, publicist and teacher Iakob Gogebashvili in 1876 will return to schools in September, Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze stated today. The Georgian government held an event dedicated to the return of the textbook at Iakob Gogebashvili’s house museum in the village of Variani, Shida Kartli region, Georgia.
The story of the UNESCO-recognised writing systems of the Georgian alphabet is now on display at Google Arts and Culture, a major online repository of museum exhibits and cultural phenomena.
Georgians all over the country are celebrating Georgian Language Day today to mark an event in 1978 when around 100,000 citizens protested to protect the status of Georgian as the official state language.
Remarkable moment etched in Georgia’s history
Georgians all over the country are today celebrating Georgian Language Day to mark an occasion 38 years ago when 100,000 citizens protested to protect the status of Georgian language as the official state language.
The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia is celebrating the Mother Language Day by exhibiting print editions of Deda Ena, a classic elementary school textbook for Georgian from 1876, in an online exposition.