“Lishanan” project:

  • Written by:

A language is a tool that connects people together. Each nation has its own language that they inherited from their ancestors. Our language is one of the most beautiful languages. Our ancestors kept this language for many years to deliver to us today. Today, after losing our land, and being very few in number in Mesopotamia after we were millions, our language is all that we have left. Our people have spread all around the world and as a part of the new life, they started learning the languages of the countries they migrated to which resulted in our language being forgotten little by little as we do not teach it to our children. If the situation continues being the same way, our language will be lost in a few years’ time. It is quite sad if we think about it, especially if we consider how our ancestors used our language and how we are using it nowadays, even in our homeland. The language we use nowadays is full of vocabularies we have borrowed from the other languages around us; therefore, our vocabularies are being lost when unused. For all that was mentioned above, we, a group of young people living inside and outside the homeland, have come together and decided to start a project to liven our language through reading, writing and speaking. We chose to call this project “#Lishanan – #our_language”, because when you meet a Chaldean he will say “I am proud of our #Chaldean_language”, as when a Syriac will say “I am proud of our #Syriac_language”, likewise, the Assyrian will say “I am proud of our #Assyrian_language”. So, “our language” or “Lishanan” is what unites us.
We began to work on this project a while ago, and the work is still in progress with the hopes of getting everything set and ready to launch the project by the end of this year. Here are some of the main goals of this project:
1. The project includes teaching reading and writing through the use of modern technology using pictures and videos. The project will aim at giving the lesson in English and Arabic, in addition to our language, in an easy, smooth manner that would be suitable for all ages. These lessons will be published on the social media and Youtube.
2. The translation of the new vocabulary we learn in each lesson into some of the international and regional languages like; English, French, Arabic, Swedish, German, Turkish, and Kurdish. These are the languages used in the areas where most of our people live.
3. Using our language’s terms instead of the ones borrowed from other languages like Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, Turkish and/or English.
Concerning the future goals, we aim at creating an electronic dictionary that translates words from our language to the languages mentioned above. Moreover, we aim at creating an app for smart phones, for both Android and iOS, and we have other goals which we are planning for steadily.
Today is the #International_Mother_Languages_Day, which is why we wanted to present our project in this very day. We will be expecting your feedback and suggestions, as we will accept any kind of help that anyone can offer. We ask you to interact with this project and encourage your children to learn this precious language.
We must give thanks to all those who have worked, and are working, hard to keep our language alive and serve our nation.
February 21st 2016