Scholars had sounded alarm over numbers of languages in Kenya which are faced with the danger of extinction
In
a paper presented by Onesmus Kilonzo during languages capacity
building workshop in Nairobi for the provincial languages committee
at Nyayo house he said that unless something is done such
languages will perish
He pointed out that language which is not used by children
and youth is in danger of perishing because it luck promotion
among its own people
Kilonzo give example of Tiriki in
Western Kenya which is used in Hamisi and Suba in Nyanza which
are no longer used by youth due to one reason or another
He said that language death also affect cultural and calls
upon communities to moot away of promoting local languages
which are threaten with Western Cultural and bigger communities
Out
of Kenya 42 indigenous languages. 16 of them have either becomes
extinct or are seriously endangered according to the latest UNESCO
report.
This is the highest number in eastern Africa where four Countries,
Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Ethiopia are experiencing what the
report termed as high languages mortality
The one day workshop
brought together officers from Nairobi County who mapped away
of promoting local languages including Kiswahili and cultural
which are facing danger
Speaker after speaker appealed to the government to establish
African languages center in the city with the major objective
of promoting Africa languages
At the same time calls Ministry
of Education to start teaching local languages in Schools
adding that is the only way of promoting them and urged
writers to publish more books in Kiswahili and other local
langauges because there is shortage of reading materials in
Schools
ends
No comments:
Post a Comment