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When I was in south Sudan, people used to rap in my village. But the rapping was more in the mother tongue, Nuer.
Emmanuel Jal

Meaning of "mother tongue" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

PRONUNCIATION OF MOTHER TONGUE

mother tongue play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF MOTHER TONGUE

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Mother tongue is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES MOTHER TONGUE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

mother tongue

First language

A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity. In some countries, the terms native language or mother tongue refer to the language of one's ethnic group rather than one's first language. Children brought up speaking more than one language can have more than one native language, and be bilingual. By contrast, a second language is any language that one speaks other than one's first language.

Definition of mother tongue in the English dictionary

The definition of mother tongue in the dictionary is the language first learned by a child. Other definition of mother tongue is a language from which another has evolved.

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE MOTHER TONGUE

mother country
mother craft
Mother Earth
Mother Goose
mother hen
Mother Hubbard
mother lode
mother love
Mother Nature
Mother of God
Mother of Parliaments
Mother of Satan
mother of the chapel
mother of vinegar
mother ship
Mother Shipton
mother superior
mother wit
mother-in-law
mother-in-law´s tongue

WORDS THAT END LIKE MOTHER TONGUE

adder´s-tongue
beardtongue
bluetongue
chaise longue
dog´s-tongue
double-tongue
egg and tongue
hart´s-tongue
hound´s-tongue
langue
mother-in-law´s tongue
native tongue
on the tip of one´s tongue
out-tongue
oxtongue
sharp tongue
silver tongue
single-tongue
the rough side of one´s tongue
tongue
wooden tongue

Synonyms and antonyms of mother tongue in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «mother tongue» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF MOTHER TONGUE

Find out the translation of mother tongue to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of mother tongue from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «mother tongue» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

母语
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

lengua materna
570 millions of speakers

English

mother tongue
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

मातृ भाषा
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

لُغَةُ الْأُمِّ
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

родной язык
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

língua materna
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

মাতৃভাষা
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

langue maternelle
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Bahasa ibunda
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Muttersprache
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

母国語
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

모국어
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Basa ibu
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

tiếng mẹ đẻ
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

தாய் மொழி
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

मातृभाषा
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

ana dil
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

madrelingua
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

język ojczysty
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

рідна мова
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

limbă maternă
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

μητρική γλώσσα
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

moedertaal
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

modersmål
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

morsmål
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of mother tongue

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «MOTHER TONGUE»

The term «mother tongue» is quite widely used and occupies the 41.448 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Quite widely used
81
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «mother tongue» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of mother tongue
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «mother tongue».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «MOTHER TONGUE» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «mother tongue» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «mother tongue» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about mother tongue

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «MOTHER TONGUE»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word mother tongue.
1
Ishmael Beah
My mother tongue, Mende, is very expressive, very figurative, and when I write, I always struggle to find the English equivalent of things that I really want to say in Mende. For example, in Mende, you wouldn't say 'night came suddenly'; you would say 'the sky rolled over and changed its sides.'
2
Louis D. Brandeis
What is Americanization? It manifests itself, in a superficial way, when the immigrant adopts the clothes, the manners and the customs generally prevailing here. Far more important is the manifestation presented when he substitutes for his mother tongue the English language as the common medium of speech.
3
Shreya Ghoshal
I learnt to sing in Bengali, my mother tongue, then went on to sing in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and every possible Indian language.
4
Emmanuel Jal
When I was in south Sudan, people used to rap in my village. But the rapping was more in the mother tongue, Nuer.
5
Tahar Ben Jelloun
This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue.
6
Kailash Kher
For us Indians, I don't think English can ever exude that magic of emotions which our mother tongue can.
7
Amin Maalouf
The fact of simultaneously being Christian and having as my mother tongue Arabic, the holy language of Islam, is one of the basic paradoxes that have shaped my identity.
8
Max von Sydow
I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor.
9
Bryn Terfel
It was in Cardiff, and the cast was 60 per cent Welsh-speaking. It's the first time I've walked into a rehearsal room speaking my mother tongue, which in itself was a breath of fresh clean air from the Welsh mountains. Singing Hans Sachs is always a milestone, but I was happy to be part of such an achievement, not personally but as a company.
10
Bryn Terfel
Welsh is my mother tongue, and my children speak it. If you come and live in this community you'll work out pretty quickly that it's beneficial to learn the language, because if you're going to the pub or a cafe you need to be a part of the local life.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «MOTHER TONGUE»

Discover the use of mother tongue in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to mother tongue and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
The Mother Tongue
With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson--the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent--brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language.
Bill Bryson, 1990
2
Challenging the Traditional Axioms: Translation Into a ...
Translation into a non-mother tongue or inverse translation, especially of literary texts, has always been frowned upon within Translation Studies in Western cultures and regarded by literary scholars and linguists as an activity of dubious ...
Nike K. Pokorn, 2005
3
Mother Tongue
" --Barbara Kingsolver "Demetria Martínez has pulled out all the stops: here is truth to arouse any hardened heart; here is the 'insanity' of a woman in love calling forth a revolutionary lucidity. Read it. Get angry. And act.
Demetria Martinez, 2010
4
Mother Tongue
Daniel MacIvor transforms himself into a series of characters whose lives seem eerily related. There’s the young boy who tells the story of the neighbour lad who hacked up his father in the basement.
Betty Quan, 1996
5
Beyond the Mother Tongue: The Postmonolingual Condition
Because newer multilingual forms and practices exist in tension with the paradigm, which alternately obscures, pathologizes, or exoticizes them, this book argues that they can best be understood as "postmonolingual" that is, as marked by ...
Yasemin Yildiz, 2012
6
Mother tongue
Four stories on the lives of Turkish immigrants in Germany.
Emine Sevgi Özdamar, 1994
7
Research on Mother Tongue Education in a Comparative ...
The topics of this volume include * IMEN's aims, points of departure, history and methodology. * research on the professional practical knowledge of MTE-teachers. * innovation, key incident analysis and international triangulation * ...
Wolfgang Herrlitz, Sigmund Ongstad, Piet-Hein van de Ven, 2007
8
Recovering Paul's Mother Tongue: Language and Theology in ...
Susan Eastman here argues that Galatians 4: 12???5: 1 plays a key role in this movement: it displays the power of God??'s act in Christ, apart from the law, not only to generate the Galatians??? new life in Christ but also to perfect it.
Susan Grove Eastman, 2007
9
Tongue and Mother Tongue: African Literature and the ...
This collection is the culmination of the fierce, decades-old debate on the question of African literature and its criticism.
Pamela J. Olúbùnmi Smith, Daniel P. Kunene, 2002
10
Mother Tongue: Journal of the Association for the Study of ...
Because of Professor Fleming's major focus on language — he founded the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory and the journal Mother Tongue — the content of the book is heavily tilted toward the study of human language, ...
‎2008

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «MOTHER TONGUE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term mother tongue is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Schools Struggle to Accommodate 'Minority Learners'
Government this year introduced a policy making the mother tongue the medium of instruction from Grade one to three as part of the new ... «AllAfrica.com, Jul 15»
2
Kit Harington pictured smoking with Game of Thrones cast mates …
She said: “I found it so much easier doing Valyrian than I did learning Dothraki, which is weird because Daenerys' mother tongue is Valyrian. «Irish Mirror, Jul 15»
3
Buy a book for next generation
... of reading with the children in their mother tongue, as Nelson Mandela himself once said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, ... «News24, Jul 15»
4
Vuks in Gugs kids kept busy
The program had to be implemented in thier mother tongue as this was the better way to ensure the implementation of the program is a success ... «News24, Jul 15»
5
Thanks to those who made a difference
You are the best, that is the best. May I thank you in my mother tongue, Kisakuma, a language of people living just south of Lake Victoria in the ... «The Reflector, Jul 15»
6
How can children learn fourth languages? asks linguist Dr Henriette …
I study how children learn their mother tongue and how children and adults learn second, third, fourth or further languages, and what that tells ... «Cambridge News, Jul 15»
7
South Asian Seniors Vulnerable to Alienation and Abuse
English, too, is commonly used by children to answer their grandparents, even if they may understand their mother tongue. Missing their ... «India West, Jul 15»
8
'Take legal route to save Kannada'
MYSURU: The growing fondness for English is posing a threat to Kannada language. A legal fight is inevitable to protect mother tongue in the ... «Times of India, Jul 15»
9
#LifeisMusic - What it takes to be a professional musician: Dr …
In her family, music has been learnt the way mother tongue, family values and traditions are in any other household. Trained by their father at a ... «Bollywood Life, Jul 15»
10
What Do You Say When You Stub Your Toe?
or “Sh__!” or “F__!” (or their equivalent in your language if English is not your mother tongue)? Would it ever occur to you to say “Praise God! «Onislam.net, Jul 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Mother tongue [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/mother-tongue>. Apr 2024 ».
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