Mother Tongue: Meaning & Everything You Need to Know about the Mother Language

Definition. Mother tongue refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood
by the person at the time the data was collected. If the person no longer understands the first language
learned, the mother tongue is the second language learned.

The term "mother tongue" refers to a person's native language — that is, a language learned from birth.
Also called a first language, dominant language, home language, and native tongue (although these
terms are not necessarily synonymous).

The mother tongue (or mother language) has several definitions. Here are the top four mother tongue
meanings:

The first and most common mother tongue meaning is:

The language that a child’s mother and father speak. This is the definition we will explore in-depth in
this post.

Other mother tongue definitions include:

 The language a child grew up speaking.

 The language of a particular area or ethnic group.
 The language from which other languages are formed.

Is the mother tongue the same as the first language?

Many sources do refer to mother tongue and native language, or first language, synonymously.

The mother tongue and first language are not always the same, if mother tongue is used to describe
either the mother or father’s native language. The first language is the language that a child learns to
speak first in life. Therefore, depending on exposure, the mother tongue and the first language may or
may not be the same. On some occasions, even if parents speak the mother tongue at home, children
may begin using the dominant community language first if they are exposed to it more. Parents may also
have differing mother tongues, meaning the child is exposed to multiple languages at once.

Is the mother tongue a dialect?

The mother tongue can be a dialect, depending on the language natively spoken by the mother and
father. However, the term mother tongue is not used to define one specific language.
Can a person have more than one mother tongue?

Yes, people can have more than one mother tongue.

If both parents speak different languages (OPOL), as mentioned above, a bilingual child would have two
mother tongues.

However, this is not the case with all bilinguals. If both parents spoke English at home and a child
learned French at school, (using MLAH) that bilingual child would still only have one mother tongue.

However, if a child in the same school had a father who spoke English and a mother who spoke French,
this child would have two mother tongues.

How is the mother tongue acquired?

The mother tongue is acquired through a natural process that begins while the child is in the womb.

After birth, children are surrounded by language, generally, their mother tongue, being spoken around
them.

Over time, through listening and observation, they learn to replicate the sounds and words they’ve
heard around them.

Why is your mother tongue important?

Your mother tongue is important because it can help you stay connected to where your mother or
father is originally from.

It also gives insight into the language environment and culture that your mother or father grew up in.

The mother tongue also provides you with a cultural context.

Language teaches you a certain people group’s views toward respect, elders, and community in the
ways you address one another. This structure forms, in part, your views of the world and others.

In addition, certain words simply do not exist in other languages. This can teach you cultural nuances
you may miss if you did not speak your mother tongue.
Can you forget your mother tongue?

It is possible to forget your mother tongue. If the mother tongue is only spoken by parents or extended
family, people may begin to forget their mother tongue due to lack of use.

This, unfortunately, is how many languages begin to die out. The community language overtakes the
home language.

This often occurs when children begin attending school and the majority of their day is spent in the
community language instead of the mother tongue.

It can also occur if a person moves away from their community and no longer has speakers of their
home language to communicate with. For example when a child is adopted.

How does your mother tongue influence learning and language acquisition?

Your mother tongue influences learning and language acquisition because it teaches you a basic
linguistic structure, or how languages work.

This linguistic base forms the assumptions your brain makes about language and the sounds you are
most attuned to.

You learn how to guess when one word begins and another ends through intonation and to judge the
mood of a speaker by their tone.

When trying to learn a new language, you will attempt to apply the rules you already know from your
first language.

If the two languages have similar roots, it will be much easier for you to acquire the second language
than if you had to learn an entirely new structure.

Why do people find it difficult to learn their mother tongue?

People may have difficulty learning their mother tongue because they do not use it often enough or they
are not exposed to it frequently.

Research has shown that, generally, children need around 30% of their language input to be in the
mother tongue to acquire fluency.

Although there are many cases where children have become fluent without this much exposure due to
the quality of their interactions, consistent exposure is key to learning a new language.

Without enough input, a child will struggle to obtain fluency in their mother tongue.
Why is it called the mother tongue?

The mother tongue is referred to as such because it is the language of your primary caregiver, which
traditionally was the mother.

However, this has sparked recent debate about whether the term father tongue should be used as well
to give equal importance to the father’s language.

Learning your mother tongue is often a very important part of understanding and preserving your
cultural heritage.

If your mother tongue isn’t the same language you grew up speaking in school or at home, consider
taking the time to learn your mother tongue.

It just may help you more fully understand and appreciate who you are and where you come from.

Culture and Mother Tongue - "It is the language community of the mother tongue, the language
spoken in a region, which enables the process of enculturation, the growing of an individual into a
particular system of linguistic perception of the world and participation in the centuries-old history of
linguistic production."

(Tulasiewicz, W. and A. Adams, "What Is Mother Tongue?" Teaching the Mother Tongue in a
Multilingual Europe. Continuum, 2005.)

"Cultural power can...backfire when the choices of those who embrace Americanness in language,
accent, dress, or choice of entertainment stir resentment in those who do not. Every time an Indian
adopts an American accent and curbs his 'mother tongue influence,' as the call centers label it, hoping to
land a job, it seems more deviant, and frustrating, to have only an Indian accent."

(Giridharadas, Anand. "America Sees Little Return From 'Knockoff Power.'" The New York Times, June 4,
2010.)

Myth and Ideology - "The notion of 'mother tongue' is thus a mixture of myth and ideology. The family
is not necessarily the place where languages are transmitted, and sometimes we observe breaks in
transmission, often translated by a change of language, with children acquiring as first language the one
that dominates in the milieu. This phenomenon...concerns all multilingual situations and most of the
situations of migration."

(Calvet, Louis Jean. Towards an Ecology of World Languages. Polity Press, 2006.)

Top 20 Mother Tongues - "The mother tongue of more than three billion people is one of 20: Mandarin
Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, Javanese, German, Wu
Chinese, Korean, French, Telugu, Marathi, Turkish, Tamil, Vietnamese, and Urdu. English is the lingua
franca of the digital age, and those who use it as a second language may outnumber its native speakers
by hundreds of millions. On every continent, people are forsaking their ancestral tongues for the
dominant language of their region’s majority
5 Amazing Language Facts on International Mother Language Day

It is a common belief that as we move towards a society in which the medium of teaching is English, we
tend to move away from our mother tongue. The first language that a baby learns right from his or her
birth is termed as the birth language and thus, plays a crucial role in our lives for a wide array of reasons.
On the International Mother Language Day (February 21), let us look at these 5 reasons and understand
why it is important to know your mother tongue well:

Intellectual Development - Studies have shown that cognitive development as well as intellectual
development is comparatively faster in those who are fluent in their mother tongue. It has also been
noted that if a student is educated in his/her mother tongue, the rate of his or her educational success is
higher than someone who is taught in a different medium other than their mother tongue.

Better connection with your culture - Languages are the most important way of keeping our culture
alive. Often the direct translation of one language to another might not carry the same essence as it is in
the source language. Thus, the best way to thoroughly know about a culture is to know the language.
Mother tongue helps us stay connected to our culture and our roots.

Second language learning - If one has a firm grasp of their mother tongue, it is easier for him or her to
master a new language. When a child reads out in their mother tongue since childhood, he or she would
have stronger literacy skills in other languages.

Commercial benefits - As the businesses go the local way, the importance of mother tongues has
exponentially increased. Thus, in such a scenario, having a firm understanding of your mother tongue
where you know how to read and write is immensely helpful if you are interested in becoming an
entrepreneur. The opportunities related to monetizing with the help of one’s mother tongues are vast in
today’s market scenario.

The Pride - Knowing your mother tongue well is a matter of pride. It boosts one’s confidence and
creates awareness in the individual’s mind while also helping them connect with their cultural identity in
a better manner.

Mother tongue has a huge positive influence in defining the personality of an individual, however, the
medium of education which is usually English also encourages parents to speak to their children in their
second language. Thus, this leads to confusion in the minds of the children and hence, they face
difficulties in mastering both first and second language.

Mother tongue is the language which a child starts hearing after being born and thus, it also helps in
providing a definite shape to our emotions and thoughts. Learning in your mother tongue also is crucial
in enhancing other skills such as critical thinking, skills to learn a second language and literacy skills.
Thus, we can say that the mother tongue can be used as an effective tool of learning.