Mother tongue
A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...
usually refers to the language that a person learned as a child at home or a person's first language
Mother tongue may also refer to:
*Mother tongue, or language, a
proto-language
In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unatte ...
in historical linguistics
*
Proto-Human language
The Proto-Human language, also known as Proto-Sapiens, Proto-World, or the Urlanguage is the hypothetical direct genetic predecessor of all human languages.
The concept is speculative and not amenable to analysis in historical linguistics. It ...
, the hypothetical most recent common ancestor of all the world's languages
*''
The Mother Tongue
''The Mother Tongue'' is a 1990 book by Bill Bryson which compiles the history and origins of the English language and its various quirks. It is subtitled ''English And How It Got That Way''. The book discusses the Indo-European origins of English ...
'', a history of the English language by Bill Bryson
*
''Mother Tongue'' (journal), a periodical published by the Association for the Study of Languages in Prehistory
*
''Mother Tongue'' (film), a 1993 film featuring
Craig Parker
Craig Parker (born 12 November 1970) is a New Zealand actor, known for his roles as Guy Warner in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Street'' (1992–96, 2007–08, 2020, 2023), Haldir in the ''Lord of the Rings'' films ''The Fellowship of t ...
*
Mother Tongue Publishing, a Canadian publisher
Music
*
''Mothertongue'' (album), 2008 album by Nico Muhly
*
Mother Tongue (band), an American rock band co-founded by guitarist
Jesse Tobias
Jesse Tobias (born April 1, 1972) is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist and co-writer for Morrissey since 2004. Tobias first gained fame during a brief tenure with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1993, although he was replaced b ...
*
"Mother Tongue" (Bring Me the Horizon song), a song by Bring Me the Horizon from ''Amo''
* "Mother Tongue", a song by Dead Can Dance from ''
The Serpent's Egg''
See also
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Mother-in-law's tongue, ''Dracaena trifasciata'', a species of flowering plant
*
Father Tongue hypothesis
The father tongue hypothesis proposes the idea that humans tend to speak their father's language. The hypothesis is based on a 1997 proposal that linguistic affiliation correlates more closely with Y-chromosomal variation than with mitochondria ...
*
Native Tongue (disambiguation)
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