mother tongue
the language first learned by a person; native language.
Origin of mother tongue
1Words Nearby mother tongue
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use mother tongue in a sentence
One of my roommates muttered, wondering whether Yang was too good to speak in his mother tongue.
China’s path to modernization has, for centuries, gone through my hometown | Yangyang Cheng | June 30, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewVictoria doesn’t allow Gouramma to see her father again, and Gouramma eventually loses the ability to speak Hindi, her mother tongue.
The Little-Known History Behind the People of Color Who Joined the Royal Family Long Before Meghan | Suyin Haynes | March 12, 2021 | TimeLike Armenians of that generation, they spoke Turkish and lacked the incentive or security to preserve their mother tongue.
How Biking Across America Formed an Unlikely Friendship | Raffi Joe Wartanian | October 8, 2020 | Outside OnlineI think when you read something in the mother tongue it resonates more strongly.
In a moving autobiographical essay in 2001, mother tongue, he wrote: “At home, there was violence in the air.”
All Novels Are Spy Novels: Ian McEwan Talks ‘Sweet Tooth’ and His Life | Maya Jaggi | November 15, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
His mother tongue is French, but he speaks nine languages, including five African dialects.
Now first we shall want our pupil to understand, speak, read and write the mother tongue well.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation | H. G. (Herbert George) WellsCome, give us again the message of the warrior and his armour and his battle, in the mother-tongue, so that all can understand it.
The First Christmas Tree | Henry Van DykeOur mother tongue hardly knew itself, it ran so fluently and sounded so magniloquently and lied so naturally.
Overland | John William De ForestWe speak of the "mother country" and "mother tongue," but to the Roman these were patria and serm patrius.
The Private Life of the Romans | Harold Whetstone JohnstonIt may sound severe and uncalled-for from me, but every man who has forgotten his mother-tongue is tottering on his feet.
The History of Modern Painting, Volume 1 (of 4) | Richard Muther
British Dictionary definitions for mother tongue
the language first learned by a child
a language from which another has evolved
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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