On Friday, February 26, 2021, in Banja Luka, in the theater hall of the Mejdan hall, a public lecture „Bosnian linguistic heritage today“ was held. The speakers was PhD Alen Kalajdžija, PhD Jasmin Hodžić and writer Hadžem Hajdarević. The lecture was held as part of the program of the Days of the UNSA Language Institute event, on the occasion of marking the International Mother Language Day.

The introductory speech was given by PhD Nedim Smailović, son of PhD Ismet Smailović and professor of technical sciences, who showed how computational linguistics can be used in the collection and presentation of statistical data that can show the genetic-typological similarity between languages.

PhD Alen Kalajdžija presented the inscription „Banja Luka“ in five Bosnian letters, talking about the history and tradition of Bosnian literacy from the Middle Ages to the present day, and especially about the peculiarities of Bosnian medieval culture.

PhD Jasmin Hodžić spoke about the status issues of language in society and the relationship between language and society in the context of the International Mother Language Day, and briefly about the history of language and education in our country.

The writer Hadžem Hajdarević spoke about the literary tradition and about literature as the intimacy of a nation, especially analyzing the examples of certain Bosnian sevdalinkas. In addition, he especially warned about the importance of reading, pointing out the need for training for the true, ie. experiential reading knowledge.

The host and organizer of this event was the Bosniak Community of Culture „Preporod“ Banja Luka, for whose library several of the Institute’s scientific publications were handed over. We thank the Presidents of BZK „Preporod“ Banja Luka mr. Edina Heldić-Smailagić for her hospitality.