 Since returning from Bangl*desh I've found it hard to settle back into my blog. Wellington seems like a shiny-bright Toytown by comparison -- without any wind-up toys. I love New Zealand and so I'll get over it.
Bangla is a beautiful-looking language. I'm told it was one of the first languages to use cursive writing (what kids call joined-up writing), and that every character represents a sound. With a lovely logic, characters are interlocked in different ways to create syllables or a smaller group of sounds -- thus making reading easier.
Would you die for the right to speak your own language? The country's bloody struggle for independence was triggered by public demand for Bangla to be the official national language -- spoken by 98 per cent of its people.
International Mother Language Day is celebrated on 21 February.
Meanwhile, can anyone tell me the meaning of the sign I photographed? It's outside the superb General Assembly building in Dhaka and I suspect it says "No photographs". Ssh!
2 comments
Feb 21, 2008 • Posted by Emyl
nice to know u’ve been to my town.
…and that sing….it says- “don’t play in the garden”.i think this for the children,just to save the beautiful garden from being destroyed by them.
Feb 21, 2008 • Posted by rachel
Thanks very much for explaining the meaning of the sign! (My friends thought it might mean “Don’t take any photographs”! The General Assembly and the neighbouring apartments are a superb set of buildings, and the surrounding clean green space is lovely.
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