mother tongue
USMUTH-ur tung/ˈmʌð.ɚ ˌtʌŋ/UKMUTH-uh tung/ˈmʌð.ə ˌtʌŋ/
Pluralmother tongues
- 1The first language you learned as a child, the one you grew up speaking.
Her mother tongue is Spanish, but she speaks English at school.
Children learn their mother tongue without any lessons.
Note
- 2The language that people in your family spoke long ago.
Her great-grandparents spoke Polish, and she wants to learn her mother tongue someday.
Nobody in my family speaks Irish anymore, but we still think of it as our mother tongue.
- 3The language your mother speaks, when your father speaks a different one.
My mom talks to me in French and my dad in German, so French is my mother tongue.
The twins learned their mother tongue from Mom and their father tongue from Dad.
Note
Less common meaning
- 4Everyday, casual talk, not the careful language people learn in school.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English "mother tonge", made from the words "mother" and "tongue".