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Celebration of linguistic diversity and multilingual education. The theme for 2013 International Mother Language Day is "mother tongue and books".

Programme of presentations at UNESCO HQ:

• Vernaculars in the Age of International English, by Mr Tibor Frank, Professor and Director, School of English and American Studies, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

• Past, Present and Future of the Bangla Language, by Mr Philippe Benoit, Professor of Bangla, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), Paris, France

• Spirit of 21st February in Today’s Global Context, by Mr Tozammel Huq, former Special Adviser to the Director-General of UNESCO from 1993 to 1999

• 7000 languages: Promoting Linguistic Diversity and Education through Mother Tongues, by Mr Eric Cattelain, Expert in Intercultural Communication, Université de Bordeaux 3, France

• Digital archive of the Languages of the World, by Mr Freddy Boswell, Executive Director, Summer Institute of Linguistics International

See detailed programme on Mother Language Day web site.