Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

mother tongue

/ˈmʌð.ɚ ˌtʌŋ/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.32 in modern English

Syllables: moth-er -tongue
IPA: /ˈmʌð.ɚ ˌtʌŋ/

18

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The language one first learned; the language one grew up with; one's native language.

noun

The language spoken by one’s ancestors.

noun

The language spoken by one's mother, when it differs from that spoken by one's father.

noun

Informal speech, as opposed to educated language.

Example Sentences

"His mother tongue is a relatively conservative dialect of Aramaic."
"Our conversation was entirely in Malay, as that is the official language here, and in fact the mother-tongue and only language of the controlleur, who is a native-born half-breed."
"One young Tamil teacher had assimilated the sound-system of English so thoroughly to that of his mother-tongue that none of the Chinese and Malay children understood him."
"Throughout their long history as a minority, Anglo-Indians learned their "father tongue" but were indifferent to their "mother tongue," an indigenous Indian language."
"A father tongue is a foreign language, therefore English is a foreign language not a mother tongue."
"Ramanujan has also argued that many Hindu men have both a mother tongue (the everyday language, such as Tamil, spoken by women downstairs, in the back, in the kitchen) and a father tongue (once Sanskrit, more recently English, the literary lingua franca spoken—or at least discussed—by men in the front rooms)."

Etymology

From Middle English mother tonge, modyr tong, equivalent to mother + tongue. Compare Old Norse móðurtunga (“mother tongue”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: mother tonge

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈmʌð.ɚ ˌtʌŋ/
British English: /ˈmʌð.ə ˌtʌŋ/

Inflected Forms

mother tongues (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

ancestry ethnicity

Synonyms

first language mother language native language native tongue L1 maternal language

Antonyms

father tongue

Questions

How do you pronounce mother tongue?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈmʌð.ɚ ˌtʌŋ/.
What does mother tongue mean?: The language one first learned; the language one grew up with; one's native language.
Where does mother tongue come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce mother tongue

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “mother tongue”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈmʌð.ɚ ˌtʌŋ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “mother tongue”.
Repeat and practice — Say “mother tongue” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.