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Mother tongue
//ˈmʌð.ə ˌtʌŋ// noun
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The language one first learned; the language one grew up with; one's native language.
"His mother tongue is a relatively conservative dialect of Aramaic."
- 2 one's native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next wordnet
- 3 The language spoken by one’s ancestors.
- 4 The language spoken by one's mother, when it differs from that spoken by one's father.
"Questions about respondents' place of birth, their parents' place of birth, nativity, and language use (called “mother tongue” and “father tongue”) were added to the Census between 1850 and 1960."
- 5 Informal speech, as opposed to educated language.
"The other is the maturity and experience of that; if that is our mother tongue, this is our father tongue, a reserved and select expression, too significant to be heard by the ear, which we must be born again in order to speak."
Etymology
From Middle English mother tonge, modyr tong, equivalent to mother + tongue. Compare Old Norse móðurtunga (“mother tongue”).
See also for "mother tongue"
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