Mother Tongue

Mother tongue (native language, first language) is the language a person learns first. Usually a child learns the basics of mother tongue from his family.

Good skills in native language are essential for further learning, as native language is thought to be a base of thinking. Incomplete first language skills often make learning other languages difficult. Native language has therefore a central role in education.

See also: bilingual, language acquisition, literacy, second language, sign language

Synonyms within Context: Mother Tongue

Modern Usage: Mother Tongue

Commercial Usage: Mother Tongue

Domain	Title
Books	Mother Tongue (reference) The Mother Tongue (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Klain Kwartet/My Mother Tongue (reference) Gege and the Mother Tongue (reference) Mother Tongue (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Non-Fiction Usage: Mother Tongue

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Sudan	Most of the 22 million Sudanese who live in this region are Arabic speaking Muslims, though the majority also use a traditional non-Arabic mother tongue (i.e., Nubian, Beja, Fur, Nuban, Ingessana, etc.) Among these are several distinct tribal groups; the Kababish of northern Kordofan, a camel-raising people; the Ja'alin and Shaigiyya groups of settled tribes along the rivers; the seminomadic Baggara or Kordofan and Darfur; the Hamitic Beja in the Red Sea area and Nubians of the northern Nile areas, some of whom have been resettled on the Atbara River; and the Negroid Nuba of southern Kordofan and Fur in the western reaches of the country. (references)
Minorities	Ethiopia	This drew protests from groups that reside in Oromiya whose mother tongue is not Oromiffa and who believe that their children are now at a disadvantage. (references)
	Uzbekistan	Observers believe that the statistics may underestimate the actual number of ethnic Tajiks; the figures treat ethnic Tajiks whose mother tongue was Uzbek as ethnic Uzbeks. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expression: Mother Tongue

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Mother Tongue

Modern Translation: Mother Tongue

Language		Translations for "mother tongue"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		gjuhë amëtare (first language, vernacular). (various references)

Arabic		‏اللغة القومية (first language). (various references)

Chinese		本族語 (native language). (various references)

Czech		mateřština. (various references)

Danish		modersmaal (language I), sprog I (language I). (various references)

Dutch		moedertaal (first language, language I), taal I (language I). (various references)

Finnish		äidinkieli. (various references)

French		langue maternelle. (various references)

German		muttersprache (mother-tongue, native language, native tongue). (various references)

Greek		μητρική γλώσσα (native language). (various references)

Hungarian		anyanyelv (vernacular). (various references)

Italian		madrelingua (native language). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		母語 , 母国語 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ぼ�", ぼ�"く�". (various references)

Manx		chengey ny mayrey (native language). (various references)

Pig Latin		othermay onguetay

Portuguese		língua materna (native language, native tongue, vernacular). (various references)

Romanian		limba maternã. (various references)

Russian		родной язык (vernacular), праязык. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		maternji jezik. (various references)

Spanish		idioma materno. (various references)

Swedish		modersmål (native language, vernacular). (various references)

Turkish		anadil (native language, native tongue). (various references)

Turkmen		ene dili. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings: Mother Tongue

Anagrams: Mother Tongue

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-e-g-h-m-n-o-o-r-t-t-u"
	-2 letters: untogether.
	-3 letters: thereunto, tonometer.
	-4 letters: hereunto, outhomer, roomette, routemen, tegument, together, umteenth, untether.
	-5 letters: gourmet, greenth, grutten, gumtree, gunroom, hegumen, honoree, hormone, hutment, montero, moorhen, mounter, mouther, outgone, remount, roughen, tegumen, theorem, thereon, thereto, torment, toughen, tougher, turgent.
	Words containing the letters "e-e-g-h-m-n-o-o-r-t-t-u"
	+4 letters: thermoregulation.
	+5 letters: thermoregulations.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Language	Noun: language; phraseology; speech; tongue, lingo, vernacular; mother tongue, vulgar tongue, native tongue; household words; King's English, Queen's English; dialect.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	That's your mother tongue, and stuff. (The Sure Thing; writing credit: Steven Bloom; Jonathan Roberts)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression	Frequency per Day
in law mother tongue	30
mother tongue	25
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression using "mother tongue": the mother tongue. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Misspellings
	"Mother Tongue" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: mothertongue. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Mother Tongue

Definition: Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue

Noun

Synonyms: Mother Tongue

Specialty Definition: Mother tongue

Synonyms within Context: Mother Tongue

Language

Crosswords: Mother Tongue

Modern Usage: Mother Tongue

Screenplays

Commercial Usage: Mother Tongue

Books

Music

Non-Fiction Usage: Mother Tongue

Economic History

Sudan

Minorities

Ethiopia

Uzbekistan

Expression: Mother Tongue

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Mother Tongue

in law mother tongue

mother tongue

Modern Translation: Mother Tongue

Albanian

Arabic

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hungarian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Manx

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Turkmen

Misspellings: Mother Tongue

Misspellings

Anagrams: Mother Tongue

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

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