Mother tongue vs. native language?

[Andreana]

Hi, what is the difference between mother tongue and native language? I understand they both describe the language you learned as a child but why are there two different terms? Thanks in advance and have a good day (night)?
A
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[Alan]

Hi Andreana,

The accepted phrase is mother tongue because of the association of learning your language from your mother/father. Native is usually associated with land and country, which is less personal.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story 'the' vs. 'a/an'

[Cooliegirly]

Yeah, and I think they are just terms people created. You can say "first language" as well.

[Alan]

Hi Cooliegirly,

Yes, you can use that expression but there's something warm and sentimental about using the expression mother tongue, don't you think?

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Sea Expressions

[Cooliegirly]

Oh, I see.

[Jamie (K)]

I don't agree that "native language" or "native tongue" is related to one's nation. I think in these expressions the word "native" relates to one's birth, as in "prenatal", "nativity", etc. So, your native language is the one you began learning at birth (or nowadays, scientists think children begin learning language in the fourth month of pregnancy).

In fact, I think "native language" is the more common term for the mother tongue nowadays.

The language you speak because of your national affiliation would be called your "national language". For some people the native language and the national language are not the same. For example, an elderly American from a German-speaking town in Nebraska, who didn't learn English until he was 14, grew up to speak German as his native language and English as his national language.

The term "first language" can be kind of confusing for some people. In classes we sometimes have students fill out forms, and some Africans will write "English" or "French" as their first language. I know they are not native speakers of those languages, so I ask, "Didn't you speak a different language at home?" Then they name some African language. I say, "Then that's your first language." They answer that their native language is just a patois and not a language. That's not true, but it's hard to convince them.

[Englishfan]

Hello Jamie (K),

Thank you for your interesting explanations about the usage of native language and mother tongue. You say that there are German speaking towns in the US. Can you tell us more about this? How many people in the US speak German as their first language? How do the authorities deal with this?
Regards
englishfan

[Jamie (K)]

Because the US has a lot of immigration, and because immigrants tend to settle close to each other for help and togetherness, there have always been places where the immigrant culture is so strong that people don't have to learn English if they don't want to. In the old days, this situation lasted for decades, but now with electronic media, children hear more English, and learn it more quickly.

If anyone born in the US comes from a German-speaking town and learned English as a teenager, then he is probably very old and grew up before TV. These towns used to have their own newspapers, but the only one left that I know of is the Nordamerikanishe Wochenpost (http://wochenpostusa.com), which used to be called the Detroiter Abendpost.

Still, there are some neighborhoods in big cities, and some towns, where English is not the dominant language. There are also small towns that are so isolated that, even though the people living there are monolingual native English speakers, they still have foreign accents. There is at least one town in Michigan where people speak their native English with a Polish accent, and there is another one where people have Finnish accents, even though they can't speak Finnish.

There's not much the authorities need to do about these minority language communities. The kids have to learn English in school (especially because their parents want it), and other than that there's nothing to be done. The United States has no official language.

[Andreana]

Hi again, to return to our initial question - the difference between mother tongue and native language, what about the native tongue? Is this a popular combination too and what is the difference between mother tongue and native tongue?
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[Jamie (K)]