Is English my mother tongue?

Question

I'm bilingual. I learnt English and my "real" mother tongue (an Indian language) at the same time. In the sense that I could speak that language before I could speak English, but by age 3 I could understand English.
Now, by age 5, I could read English but not my "real" mother tongue; I still can't read it. *All* the knowledge I have about the world is because of English. My vocabulary in the Indian langauge is about a twentieth (I estimated!) of my English vocabulary. Would I be right in calling English my mother tongue?

Answer 1

The language your mother spoke to you as a baby before you could understand a single word of what she was saying, is your "mother tongue". It's the first language you learned to speak.

If your mother spoke both English and the Indian language to you, then they could both be your mother tongue(s).

Whether you can read or write a language has nothing to do with whether it is your mother tongue or not. Many languages around the world are not written, but that doesn't mean that people that are fluent in them have no "mother tongue". (And you might think that such languages are always from 3rd world countries, but that is not the case--in Switzerland, one of the world's richest countries, Schwiezerdeutsch is not written. But it is the native language of most people in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.)

Your English vocabulary may have surpassed your Indian language vocabulary because of your academic studies, and your reading, and that might mean something, but not necessarily.

Which language do you dream in?

If someone cuts you off in a car, or does something to make you really mad, in what language do you swear or yell at them (or in what language do you pretend to yell at them, if you don't really do it)?

In what language can you use slang and "street language" so well, that nobody born there would ask you, "you're not from around here, are you?"

That's your native language.

Answer 2

I was also raised to be bi-lingual but the language more commonly used in my everyday life is English. I speak several other languages but the ultimate test to find one's mother tongue is to ask yourself about which language you count in when you are doing mathematical type stuff.

Answer 3

Hi, there.
Only when you will be old, you will know that.
My experience as a nurse with the elderly people shows me that you reverted to the tong you are the closest.
And sometimes, life hides facts...

Answer 4

By golly, I would say that English is indeed your mother tongue.

Answer 5

Whatever you feel is right :)