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acquisition process regarding the language, as opposed to having learned the language later in life. That is achieved by personal interaction with the language and speakers of the language. Native speakers will not necessarily be knowledgeable about every grammatical rule of the language, but they will have good "intuition" of the rules through their experience with the language.
348:", distinguishes the "native tongue" from the "cradle tongue". The latter is the language one learns during early childhood, and one's true "native tongue" may be different, possibly determined by an inherited linguistic taste and may later in life be discovered by a strong emotional affinity to a specific dialect (Tolkien personally confessed to such an affinity to the
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common usage, the emotional relation of the speaker towards the language, and even its dominance in relation to the environment. However, all three criteria lack precision. For many children whose home language differs from the language of the environment (the "official" language), it is debatable which language is their "native language".
319:
as "the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census." It is quite possible that the first language learned is no longer a speaker's dominant language. That includes young immigrant children whose families have moved to a new linguistic
392:
A related concept is bilingualism. One definition is that a person is bilingual if they are equally proficient in two languages. Someone who grows up speaking
Spanish and then learns English for four years is bilingual only if they speak the two languages with equal fluency. Pearl and Lambert were
222:
The first language of a child is part of that child's personal, social and cultural identity. Another impact of the first language is that it brings about the reflection and learning of successful social patterns of acting and speaking. Research suggests that while a non-native speaker may develop
434:
An article titled "The Native
Speaker: An Achievable Model?" published by the Asian EFL Journal states that there are six general principles that relate to the definition of "native speaker". The principles, according to the study, are typically accepted by language experts across the scientific
246:
The designation "native language", in its general usage, is thought to be imprecise and subject to various interpretations that are biased linguistically, especially with respect to bilingual children from ethnic minority groups. Many scholars have given definitions of "native language" based on
242:
The person qualifies as a "native speaker" of a language by being born and immersed in the language during youth, in a family in which the adults shared a similar language experience to the child. Native speakers are considered to be an authority on their given language because of their natural
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Defining what constitutes a native speaker is difficult, and there is no test which can identify one. It is not known whether native speakers are a defined group of people, or if the concept should be thought of as a perfect prototype to which actual speakers may or may not conform.
422:. The order in which these languages are learned is not necessarily the order of proficiency. For instance, if a French-speaking couple have a child who learned French first but then grew up in an English-speaking country, the child would likely be most proficient in English.
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connects languages to help learners build an understanding of new languages. In multilingual settings, learners can benefit from using what they already know, such as grammar, and spelling pronunciation, to support understanding of new words.
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environment as well as people who learned their mother tongue as a young child at home (rather than the language of the majority of the community), who may have lost, in part or in totality, the language they first
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the first to test only "balanced" bilinguals—that is, a child who is completely fluent in two languages and feels that neither is their "native" language because they grasp both so perfectly. This study found that
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fluency in a targeted language after about two years of immersion, it can take between five and seven years for that child to be on the same working level as their native speaking counterparts.
340:, when they were "speaking from the pulpit". That is, the "holy mother the Church" introduced this term and colonies inherited it from Christianity as a part of colonialism.
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balanced bilinguals perform significantly better in tasks that require flexibility (they constantly shift between the two known languages depending on the situation),
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Based on origin: the language(s) or dialect one learned first (the language(s) or dialect in which one has established the first long-lasting verbal contacts).
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rather than the individual's actual first language. Generally, to state a language as a mother tongue, one must have full native fluency in that language.
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in both common and journalistic parlance ("I have no apologies for not learning my mother tongue"), rather than one's first language. Also, in
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for most post-independence
Singaporeans because of its use as the language of instruction in government schools and as a working language.
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and various East Asian and
Central Asian countries, "mother language" or "native language" is used to indicate the language of one's
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857:"The relationship between degree of bilingualism and cognitive ability: A critical discussion and some new longitudinal data"
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regardless of actual proficiency, and the "first language" refers to
English, which was established on the island under the
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Children brought up speaking more than one language can have more than one native language, and be
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The individual acquired the language in early childhood and maintains the use of the language.
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Love, Nigel; Ansaldo, Umberto (2010). "The native speaker and the mother tongue".
628:"Does language shape thought?: Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time"
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they choose word associations based on logical rather than phonetic preferences.
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In the context of population censuses conducted on the
Canadian population,
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field. A native speaker is defined according to the following guidelines:
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The individual is communicatively competent in different social contexts.
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The individual identifies with or is identified by a language community.
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597:"Terri Hirst: The Importance of Maintaining a Childs First Language"
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Monument in Sydney, Australia, unveiling ceremony, 21 February 2006
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is any language that one speaks other than one's first language.
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The individual is able to produce fluent, spontaneous discourse.
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One can have two or more native languages, thus being a native
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monks to designate a particular language they used, instead of
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For the hypothetical predecessor of all spoken languages, see
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they are more aware of the arbitrary nature of language,
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The individual has intuitive knowledge of the language.
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a person has been exposed to from birth or within the
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Based on competence: the language(s) one knows best.
89:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
296:, "mother tongue" refers to the language of one's
30:Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see
268:Based on function: the language(s) one uses most.
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454:The individual does not have a foreign accent.
332:, the term "mother tongue" was first used by
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918:"The native speaker: An achievable model?"
895:. Edinburgh University Press. p. 78.
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167:The monument to the mother tongue (
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386:International Mother Language Day
232:International Mother Language Day
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272:In some countries, such as
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230:designated 21 February as
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626:Boroditsky, Lera (2001).
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563:. Multilingual Matters.
507:Father tongue hypothesis
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537:17 January 2023 at the
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344:, in his 1955 lecture "
891:Bauer, Laurie (2007).
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557:Davies, Alan (2003).
530:Bloomfield, Leonard.
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54:Proto-human language
864:Children's Language
811:"Vernacular Values"
512:Native tongue title
482:Child of deaf adult
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45:, and
979:Cultural heritage
925:Asian EFL Journal
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