native language

[ ney-tiv lang-gwij ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a language that a person acquires fully through extensive exposure in childhood:
Many Diné children learn Navajo as a native language.

First recorded in 1425–75 as natife langage

She said someone had already given her the literature in her native language, but Morrison was confident.

How does literature in your native language differ from English?

“I cannot write my native language and have no native home any more,” Kerouac wrote in 1950.

The Chilean-born man also alleges that he was not allowed to describe the incident in Spanish, his native language.

The clues are in English—Brad and Ken's native language; not Watson's.

He wrote verses with elegance in French, Spanish and Italian, and was a polisher of his native language in a barbarous age.

Sin Sin Wa's expression underwent a subtle change at the sound of his native language.

They then both knelt down in the field, while he lifted up his voice, in his native language, in thanks.

Then she turned to Miela and poured out a torrent of her native language.

Inspector Manvers was colonial born and could speak the native language fluently.

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