Today’s youths and their mother tongues.

A ‘mother tongue’ which some people argue and choose to call ‘father tongue’ is any native language a child uses at home and with people from the same region to express his or herself and to be understood by people of the same ethnic origin.This language is generally called a mother tongue because the mother spends most-as opposed to the father and other relatives-time with the growing child from the womb until the early toddler years before the infant starts school.It therefore goes without say that it is the language the mother speaks and uses with the child that will prevail in the child’s mind and mouth.So fathers, no offense but we call this primary language a child learns,mother tongue.

Also known as vernacular,local languages or dialects -though some linguists advocate for the disuse of this term in some contexts-knowledge of our respective languages have numerous advantages.We have a sense of belonging in each traditional gathering,we can express our ideas without fear of being misunderstood,we have access to all available information and whats more,we could be saved or even save lives just from saying or hearing expressions in our unique mother tongues.This does not in anyway advocate tribalism as language on its own could unite and divide in various circumstances,but this is however to high light the knowledge and use of the mother tongue as an indispensable asset. Youths who feel shy to speak or identify themselves with their mother tongue,join the fox in the age old adage from Aesop’s Fables to say ‘the grapes are sour’ after trying in vain to assess the grape tree.Such group of youths not only secretly admire their peers who are fluent in their vernaculars but wish they could rewind time to learn what they were not opportuned to learn earlier.It is never too late though,with the Cameroon government’s and various traditional groups’ efforts to teach local languages in school and during summer holidays,all hope is not lost.I believe we will one day have a unifying and national language in Cameroon as is the case with Swahili in East African countries,Arabic in North African countries just to name a few.