Definition

1. Noun:
   • The first language learned: The language a person acquires naturally from infancy or early childhood, typically from family and the immediate environment, and in which they achieve native or near-native proficiency.
   • The language of primary fluency: The language in which a person thinks, dreams, and communicates with the greatest ease and intuitive understanding of its grammatical structures, idioms, and cultural nuances.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Her native language is Spanish, but she is also fluent in English and French.
  • Children learn their native language through immersion and interaction with caregivers.
  • Even after living abroad for decades, he still dreams in his native language.

Advanced Usage

• "First language" (L1): A synonymous term often used in linguistics and education.
  • In multilingual societies, a person may have more than one first or native language.
• "Mother tongue": A common, often more emotive, synonym for native language.
  • She writes poetry in her mother tongue to express her deepest emotions.

Variants and Related Words

• Native speaker (n): A person who has spoken a particular language as their native language from early childhood.
  • The course is taught by a certified native speaker of Japanese.
• Bilingual (adj/n): (Of a person) speaking two native or near-native languages.
  • She is a bilingual individual, with English and Mandarin as her native languages.

Synonyms

• First language (L1): The primary language acquired in childhood.
• Mother tongue: The language learned from one's mother or family; often carries cultural or emotional connotations.
• Heritage language: A language connected to a person's cultural or family background, which may or may not be their dominant or native language.

Related Phrases

• Linguistic competence in one's native language: The innate, intuitive mastery of the grammar and usage of one's first language.
  • His linguistic competence in his native language allows him to craft complex sentences effortlessly.
• Native language attrition: The phenomenon where aspects of one's native language weaken due to prolonged exposure to a different dominant language.
  • After 30 years abroad, she experienced some native language attrition, forgetting less common vocabulary.

Related Concepts

• Second language (L2): A language learned after one's native language.
  • English is her second language, but she speaks it very well.
• Language acquisition: The process of learning a language. Distinguished as (for native language) and .

Noun

1. the language that a person has spoken from earliest childhood