What is your mother-tongue?

Summary

The text discusses the concept of a mother-tongue and how it can be influenced by life experiences, suggesting that one's primary language can shift over time due to external factors such as immigration.

Abstract

The article explores the definition of a mother-tongue, questioning whether it is solely the first language learned from parents or if it can evolve based on the language one uses most frequently throughout their life. It references dictionary definitions, personal anecdotes, and a linguistic phenomenon where individuals often count in their mother tongue. The author, having lived in multiple countries and speaking several languages, reflects on their own experience, pondering whether English, acquired at age eight, has become their mother tongue over their native Czech. The text invites linguists and readers to consider how one's primary language can change and how this might be reflected in the brain's coding of language.

Opinions

The author's father believed that people inherently count in their mother tongue, suggesting a deep connection between this language and cognitive functions.
The author argues that their mother tongue has shifted from Czech to English based on the language they use for counting, thinking, and dreaming.
There is an implication that the definition of mother-tongue is not static and can change with life circumstances, such as becoming a political refugee and subsequently learning new languages.
The author poses open questions to the audience and linguists about the nature of mother-tongue and how it is neurologically represented, indicating a belief that this is a complex and unresolved issue in linguistics.
The author suggests that there are likely many people who, like them, do not count or think in the language they first learned as a child, challenging traditional views of what constitutes a mother-tongue.

Can you actually define a mother-tongue?

According to the Collins dictionary; “Your mother-tongue is the language that you learn from your parents when you are a baby.”

Interesting, so in that case you can have two or even more mother-tongues, if you have parents from more than one country.

While the Oxford dictionary states that “the language that you first learn to speak when you are a child”. Again, that can definitely be more than one language then.

When I was growing up, my father, who was a professor of languages, stated that people tend to always count in their mother tongue. And if you do a search for that on Google, you also find that there is a lot of evidence that, indeed, people tend to count in their native language. Hmmm….

I grew up speaking Czech — till I was 8 years old. Though in my house Russian was also spoken, and I understood it — but did not learn to speak it. When I was 8, we became political refugees and the first country where we ended up was the USA. So, English became my next language and I am going to argue that it became my “mother tongue”. After a couple of years in the USA, we moved to the Netherlands, and I learned Dutch. Now in my retirement, I live in France and speak — more or less — French. But for the biggest part of my life, I lived and worked in England.

So which language do I count it? Nearly always English. Which language do I think in? Nearly always English. And I dream in English too. Unless I am actually speaking Czech, Dutch or French at that moment, I will always revert to English. If I am speaking one of the other languages, then I may count (even just in my thoughts) in the particular language I am speaking. I will also think in that language. But the moment I stop, and I am quietly on my own I will revert to English.

So, has English become my mother tongue — even if it wasn’t the language I learned as a child? Even though I didn’t even speak it before the age of about eight. And then how many people are out there like me who do not count or think in their mother-tongue? And does that then change what your mother-tongue is and how coded it is in your brain?

Any linguists out here that will want to answer this? (I can’t ask my dad anymore…)

Or even who else on this world-wide Medium platform has come across this? It will be interesting to see.