International Mother Language Day: Gujarat has high share of bilingual, trilingual population

Ahmedabad: In a city like Ahmedabad, several individuals and organisations are attempting to take the tale of the past to the next generation through storytelling sessions for children, distribute books among young readers, or simply document the region-specific usage of dialects through their digital content.As International Mother Language Day is celebrated on Feb 21, this year's theme is ‘Youth voices on multilingual education', emphasising the critical role of young people in "preserving, promoting, and revitalising linguistic diversity through technology and education, supporting inclusive learning in mother tongues", according to Unesco.
While the next census will take place in 2027, data from the last census in 2011 indicated that the state had a diverse speaker base. Compared to 26% of the total population identifying themselves as bilingual, Gujarat had a significantly higher proportion of 43%. Likewise, against the national average of 7% trilingual population, Gujarat had double the population at 14%, according to the Language Atlas based on census data.Experts from the city said that Gujarati is a major Indian language, with a large share of speakers outside the state and even the country due to a large diaspora. Thus, it is interesting to see the regional variations of the language across different continents and how the language of yore, taken a few generations ago, is preserved and used by the current generation.