mother tongue
nounDefinition of mother tongue
1
: one's native language
2
: a language from which another language derives
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Synonyms for mother tongue
Synonyms
language, lingo, speech, tongue, vocabulary
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Examples of mother tongue in a Sentence
although the anthropologist could speak the local language fairly well, she was always glad to find someone who shared her mother tongue
Recent Examples on the Web
Each participant read aloud 15 identical passages that had been translated into their mother tongue. — Catherine Matacic, Science | AAAS, "Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second," 4 Sep. 2019 Like many children of Chinese immigrants, Wang is able to speak Sichuanese, her parents' mother tongue, but lacks literacy in Chinese characters. — Dallas News, "In Plano artist Jenney Chang's brush paintings, East and West come together," 19 Aug. 2019 And as added bonus, native English speakers will be able to speak in their mother tongue. — Teen Vogue, "10 Best Places To Study Abroad: Our Favorite Study-Abroad Cities," 25 Mar. 2019 Under the new legislation, students would only be able to learn in their mother tongue in subjects related to culture and history. — Tyler Dikun, Fox News, "Latvian legislation seeks to diminish ethnic Russians' cultural impact," 8 Mar. 2018 Because the language learnt in infancy has the greatest emotional resonance, swearing in your mother tongue always feels most powerful, even among the most fluent multilinguals. — The Economist, "Foul playThe power of profane language," 25 Jan. 2018 Künstler, meaning artist in German, Deckard’s mother tongue, alludes to the concentration of artists and galleries in the area. — Markus Haas, San Antonio Express-News, "S.A.’s Künstler Brewing a good choice for good beer," 11 Jan. 2018 Newsflash: Trump’s grandparents and only one of his parents was born in the United States or spoke English as their mother tongue. — Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, "The Week in Washington: “Madame Speaker, Did You Bring Your Handcuffs?”," 19 May 2019 Growing up on the western frontier of the Tang empire, Li Po spoke a Turkish dialect as his mother tongue. — Yunte Huang, WSJ, "‘The Banished Immortal’ Review: ‘Heaven Begot a Talent Like Me’," 11 Jan. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mother tongue.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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