maternal language
- noun
- /məˈtɜrnəl ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ/
:
lengua materna
- In other words, if there were no differences between the Ghale and Tamang in maternal language ability and the presence of djo, Ghale women would have even higher relative odds of marrying than the observed odds shown in the first column.
Examples
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This is quite a surprising situation: the language of instruction at school is different from the language learned at home, which is Mauritian Creole, their maternal language, or the national language spoken by nearly all Mauritians.
Blog text (10) -
Close to 10 percent of the population speak English as their maternal language and, in several cities, have had their own institutions.
Academic text (2003) -
Many children find comfort in speaking their maternal language at home with their families.
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For most people, their maternal language holds deep cultural significance and is an integral part of their identity.
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Learning English as a second language can be challenging, especially when it differs from one's maternal language.
Synonyms
14
2.0
The first language a person learns as a child
12
2.2
The language a person learns from birth and speaks at home
5
2.7
The first language a person learns at home
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'maternal' (relating to the mother) and 'language' (a speech system): it denotes the language associated with one's mother or learned from parents. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g., Spanish 'lengua materna', French 'langue maternelle'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Maternal language may come from the simple image of a mother teaching her baby to speak. The word maternal means 'from the mother', and the language a child first learns from their mother becomes their 'maternal language', so today it means the language someone learns from birth.