In 1999, UNESCO established the International Mother Language Day which we celebrate on February 21. This day is already celebrated in the world for the 21st time. The message of the holiday is to protect mother tongues, promote multilingualism and emphasize the value of language education. This day was celebrated for the first time in 2000.

UNESCO has developed an Atlas of Endangered Languages, where you can find data on 3,000 languages. Eight of them are related to the territory of Poland: Kashubian, Belarusian, Yiddish, Ruthenian, Romani, Polesian, Wilamowski (a Germanic language spoken by about 60 inhabitants of the town of Wilamowice near Bielsko-Biała), as well as Slovinian, which since the 1960s is considered extinct. Polish is one of the 25 most popular languages ​​in the world, spoken by over 40 million people in Poland and abroad.