Synonyms for mother tongue
moth·er tongue

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. mother tonguenoun

   Synonyms:
   first language, native language

2. mother tonguenoun

   The language one first learned; the language one grew up with; one's native language.

   Synonyms:
   first language, native language

3. mother tonguenoun

   The language spoken by one’s ancestors.

   Synonyms:
   native language, first language

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. mother tongue

   Language (French langage < Latin lingua, the tongue) signified originally expression of thought by spoken words, but now in its widest sense it signifies expression of thought by any means; as, the language of the eyes, the language of flowers. As regards the use of words, language in its broadest sense denotes all the uttered sounds and their combinations into words and sentences that human beings employ for the communication of thought, and, in a more limited sense, the words or combinations forming a means of communication among the members of a single nation, people, or race. Speech involves always the power of articulate utterance; we can speak of the language of animals, but not of their speech. A tongue is the speech or language of some one people, country, or race. A dialect is a special mode of speaking a language peculiar to some locality or class, not recognized as in accordance with the best usage; a barbarism is a perversion of a language by ignorant foreigners, or some usage akin to that. Idiom refers to the construction of phrases and sentences, and the way of forming or using words; it is the peculiar mold in which each language casts its thought. The great difficulty of translation is to give the thought expressed in one language in the idiom of another. A dialect may be used by the highest as well as the lowest within its range; a patois is distinctly illiterate, belonging to the lower classes; those who speak a patois understand the cultured form of their own language, but speak only the degraded form, as in the case of the Italian lazzaroni or the former negro slaves in the United States. Vernacular, from the Latin, has the same general sense as the Saxon mother tongue, of one's native language, or that of a people; as, the Scriptures were translated into the vernacular. Compare DICTION.

   Synonyms:
   barbarism, dialect, diction, expression, idiom, language, patois, speech, tongue, vernacular, vocabulary

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:1.0 / 1 vote

1. mother tongue, maternal language, first languagenoun

   one's native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next

   Synonyms:
   first language, maternal language

Matched Categories

1. • Natural Language

Suggested Resources

1. mother tongue

   Song lyrics by mother tongue -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by mother tongue on the Lyrics.com website.

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How to use mother tongue in a sentence?

1. David Liu:

   I speak Mandarin and Cantonese. They can use their mother tongue and talk to me. I will try to explain to them about the law and about the safety of firearms.

2. Welat Aydin:

   We did not receive education in our mother tongue. Education is of poor quality anyway. When there is no chemistry teacher, the literature teacher takes chemistry classes. That is why I did not apply for university entrance exams. I didn't believe I would stand a chance.