Language days of the Mother Tongue Society — a stairway down from the ivory tower
Language days of the Mother Tongue Society — a stairway down from the ivory tower

Summary/Abstract: On the 11th of November 1999 Heino Ahven would have celebrated his 80th birthday. For more than 40 (1947–1988) years Ahven was scientific secretary of the Mother Tongue Society. The traditional language days were first held in 1961, thus in Ahven’s time. The main aim of the language days is the propagation of language, culture and patriotism — they are aimed at a wide circle of people. The continuation of language days in schools all over Estonia are an argument against those who have accused the Mother Tongue Society of being too academic, scholastic and shut up in an ivory tower. This last expression means individuality, isolationism, being separated from reality and the interests of the people. The themes of the language days have been rather varied: the written language today (problems of grammar and vocabulary), dialects, the history of the written language, the creation of new words, the languages of world and the politics of language, artificial languages, writers’ language use and problems of style, local culture, style in folk songs etc. The most popular themes in schools have been slang and the literary language, first names of the pupils etc. Sometimes language days are organized on the same day as other days of cultural significance. In addition to the language days since 1973 there have been folk-poetry days and since 1978 theory of style days.

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