mother Tongue - define?

Question

Mother tongue is the language in which one thinks. If a person knows one language, he thinks in same.
When one knows multiple language , primarily he thinks always in one of the languages ant it is his mother tongue.

Can you agree. Please give your comments

Answer 1

There are some very good discussions of this on Steve's site, the Languagehat site.

I think that the language I grew up with, and in which I think, could be called my native tongue or mother tongue.

Answer 2

I agree that one primarily thinks in his mother tongue, however, that is not always the case. My mother tongue is French but there are some specific topics, or depending on the people I'm with or even the state of mind I'm in, sometimes I think in English. I actually am sometimes looking for the right word in French because the only word that comes to mind is in English.

Answer 3

Mother tongue is generally refered to your first language, the language you are brought up in and speak at home.
Although this term can have other meanings.

Here are some links relating to your question.

Answer 4

I think "mother tongue" refers to a language which all of us practices from the very early days of our life, it is the language of the society in which we born.
If an individual learn different languages later in life, we can't called these languages as his mother tongue.

Answer 5

If you learn another language well, you think in that language too. I can't imagine speaking with other people in english and thinking in greek. I would be confused.

Probably mother tongue is the language that your first words were in.

Answer 6

Mother tongue is the first language one learns, your original language. The next language is your second language. Most of us have one language as our first language but this is changing as more multicultural couples are raising their children with equal exposure to two languages, such as English and Spanish, English and Vietnamese, etc. The children do not suffer from this and it actually give them an advantage over other children when it comes to the tools needed for language acquisition.

Answer 7

I always thought that "mother tongue" meant the language of ones country of origin.

Answer 8

Mother Tongue is your native language. You see, the language you think in is affected by what environment you are in. For example, I thought in English when I was in Australia, even though English is not my one of my native languages (Finnish and Swedish are).

So, that's just a matter of ability, I think.

Answer 9

I don't agree. When one knows multiple languanges, he or she doesn't necessarily thinks in his mother tongue.
The language in which we think can change after a while in a different country.

Answer 10

my primary language is spanish but i use english more unless im talking with friends or relative in my country. so because im always speaking english, im always thinking in english. because if i didnt, then i'd be translating everything i want to say and i probably will take longer to talk.

anyways, i do it without even thinking about it. i notice that when i visit my country, in the beginning im thinking in english and it gets complicated because im translating everything im saying. lots of time i end up saying things in english because i just can get them out in spanish. but this would probably happen the first day, or even less.
most of my friends speak english so if one word i can think of, i would say it in english and ask whats the word in spanish.

its silly i guess but it happens. i try to think in my language but my head just switches on me without me noticing.