mother tongue

moth·er tongue

M m

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- [muhth -er tuhng]
- /ˈmʌð ər tʌŋ/
- /ˈmʌðə(r) tʌŋ/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [muhth -er tuhng]
- /ˈmʌð ər tʌŋ/

Definitions of mother tongue words

noun mother tongue the language first learned by a person; native language. 1
noun mother tongue mother language. 1
noun mother tongue native language 1
countable noun mother tongue Your mother tongue is the language that you learn from your parents when you are a baby. 0
noun mother tongue the language first learned by a child 0
noun mother tongue a language from which another has evolved 0

See all 8 definitions of mother tongue

Information block about the term

Origin of mother tongue

First appearance:

before 1350

One of the 20% oldest English words

1350-1400; Middle English moder tonge

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Mother tongue

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Mother tongue

mother tongue popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 32% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 64% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

mother tongue usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for mother tongue

noun mother tongue

vernacular — (of language) native or indigenous (opposed to literary or learned).
first language — mother tongue
parent language — an earlier language from which another is derived.

All 3 Synonyms of mother tongue

Matching words

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