Kota Kinabalu: Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan (pic) has stressed the importance of speaking one’s mother tongue at home, describing the household as a child’s “first school”.
The Kadazandusun Cultural Association (KDCA) president and Huguan Siou (Paramount Leader) cautioned that native languages risk disappearing if people do not actively speak, write, and pass them down to future generations.
Recalling his own childhood, Pairin shared that he almost forgot his mother tongue after leaving home at age 10 to board at Holy Trinity School in Tawau, where roughly 90 per cent of students spoke Hakka.
He explained that constant immersion in Hakka helped him learn the dialect, while the lack of native speakers around him nearly erased his Speak mother tongue at home to prevent its loss, urges Pairinfirst language.
His command of indigenous languages only recovered later in life as he reconnected with rural communities, eventually mastering Tambunan Dusun and Penampang Kadazan languages, alongside some Lotud and Murut.
Speaking after officiating the Borneo Cultural and Heritage Corner at the Kota Kinabalu International Book Fair 2026 here on Friday, he warned that unpractised languages will inevitably be forgotten by youth who never hear them used.
While acknowledging that documentation, children's book publishing, and school curriculum integration aid preservation, Pairin maintained that domestic usage remains the true anchor.
He stressed that parents must take the lead by consistently conversing in their indigenous languages at home to safeguard their heritage from fading away entirely.
