Mother tongue and the first language

Mother tongue and the first language

The definition of native language and the first language from two big

websites :

1.The concept of native language and first language:

A first language (also native language, mother tongue, arterial

language, or L1) is the language(s) a person has learned from birth or

within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often

the basis for sociolinguistic identity. In some countries, the terms native

language or mother tongue refer to the language of one's ethnic group

rather than one's first language. Sometimes, there can be more than one

native or mother tongue, for example, when the child's parents speak

different languages. Those children are usually called bilingual.

By contrast, a second language is any language that one speaks other than

one's first language.

Mother language:

"The origin of the term "mother tongue" harks back to the notion

that linguistic skills of a child are honed by the mother and therefore the

language spoken by the mother would be the primary language that the

child would learn."--this type of culture-specific notion is totally a

misnomer. The term was used by Catholic monks to designate a particular

language they used, instead of Latin, when they are "speaking from the

pulpit".That is, the "holy mother of the Church" introduced this term and colonies inherited it from the Christianity as a part of their colonial legacy,

thanks to the effort made by foreign missionaries in the transitional

period of switching over from 18th-century Mercantile Capitalism to

19th-century Industrial Capitalism in India.

In some countries such as Kenya, India, and various East Asian countries,

"mother language" or "native language" is used to indicate the language

of one's ethnic group, in both common and journalistic parlance (e.g. "I

have no apologies for not learning my mother tongue"), rather than one's

first language. Also in Singapore, "mother tongue" refers to the language

of one's ethnic group regardless of actual proficiency, while the "first

language" refers to the English language that was established on the

island through British colonisation, which is the lingua franca for most

post-independence Singaporeans due to its use as the language of

instruction in government schools and as a working language.

2.The concept of native language and first language:

(1)The first language refers to a person can contact and

acquire the language after he was born. A person's first

language is usually his mother tongue.

（2）what is mother tongue? There are some different opinions

about it , there is no one correct and suitable

explanations

about it. ① mother tongue refers to a person firstly learn a language from

birth, it may be the national language or a dialect". It also can be called

mother language.

② Sometimes mother tongue is the national language.

③ mother tongue can also be interpreted as a languages is the

origin of others language, such as French, Italian and romanian are come

from Latin.

④ Mother tongue has inheritance, it can be spocken from

generation to generation. for example, a Chinese child talk

with others in chinese learned from parents ,so his first

language is chinese.

3. the relationship between language and native language

(mother tongue)

The first language and mother tongue are two different concepts,

the first language may be a native language, or may not be a

mother tongue.

Example :

1.There is one girl in a family which her mother speeks chinese

and her father speeks spanish, the mother talk with her in

chinese, but the father talks with her in spanish, and the English is used to speek betwaeen father and mother, so the girl

also can speeks English.

Analysis : which language is the girl mother tongue ? It depends on the

identity of herself ,if she think she has same identity with her father, so

spanish is her mother tongue. on contrary, mother tongue is chinese or

chinese and English and spanish. Because there is more or double mother

tongue in Bilingual families.

2.