Mother tongue vs. native language?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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Hi, what is the difference between mother tongue and native language? I understand they both describe the language you learned as a child but why are there two different terms? Thanks in advance and have a good day (night)?
A

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Hi Andreana,

The accepted phrase is mother tongue because of the association of learning your language from your mother/father. Native is usually associated with land and country, which is less personal.

Alan

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Yeah, and I think they are just terms people created. You can say “first language” as well. :lol:

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Hi Cooliegirly,

Yes, you can use that expression but there’s something warm and sentimental about using the expression mother tongue, don’t you think?

Alan

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Oh, I see.

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Hello Jamie (K),

Thank you for your interesting explanations about the usage of native language and mother tongue. You say that there are German speaking towns in the US. Can you tell us more about this? How many people in the US speak German as their first language? How do the authorities deal with this?
Regards
englishfan

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Hi again, to return to our initial question - the difference between mother tongue and native language, what about the native tongue? Is this a popular combination too and what is the difference between mother tongue and native tongue?

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Hi,

I think there can be a semantic difference between the two terms, but it’s rarely the case that they happen to be different. I am Irish, so I would say my mother tongue is English because it is the language I grew up speaking (learned from my mother), but Irish is my native language because it is native to the country from which I come. I am a native of Ireland and Irish is native to Ireland so therefore Irish is my native language, even if I don’t speak it fluently.

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of cause mother tongue because native is country but not language

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Hi Joseph, what is your native language?

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spanish

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I like this explanation. I think sometimes we don’t need to go too far into detail about these things. To me, this explanation is enough. Thank you Teacher Alan.

Regards,
Richard.

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Joseph, do you want to be removed right away?

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