A celebration of linguistic diversity and culture entertained about 150 people in Knowle Park, Keighley, on Sunday.

The Bangladeshi Community Association (BCA) organised the event to mark International Mother Language Day.

Guests at the association's Kensington Street headquarters were treated to presentations, music, songs and food. Much of the entertainment was provided by Aaloron, a West Yorkshire-based Bengali cultural group.

The chairman of the BCA, Ahsan Ullah, said: "Many things are becoming extinct every day. Across the world about one language a day is becoming extinct, so languages need to be actively preserved."

Guest speaker Abdul Quddus, who chairs the Purobi Bengali Cultural Society in Leeds, stressed how the Bengali language movement eventually helped create the independent nation of Bangladesh.

"Bengalis in Britain who want to maintain that heritage should learn and maintain their language," he said.

"This would help social and family cohesion and would also improve the self-image of children with Bengali origins."

Other speakers included Keighley community activist Charlie Bhowmick, who was himself born in Kolkata, the cultural capital of Bengal. International Mother Language Day - which is now celebrated across the globe - was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1999.

It originated in a series of protests in 1952, in which Bengali language speakers demonstrated against the forced imposition of Urdu.