"RafaMinu" <rafaminu@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1158615415.991008.148910@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brazilian linguist Cleo Altenhofen considers the denomination
"mother tongue" in its general usage to be imprecise and subject to
various interpretations that are biased in linguistic prejudices,
especially with respect to bilingual children from ethnic minority
groups.
This guy, Cleo, gets lost in so many words. A mother's tongue, is of
course, the language a child learns on his mother's knees. That it may
not
be the mother's, her own mother's tongue is immaterial.
Oscar
A person's first language, native language or mother tongue is the
language that was learned first by the person. Correspondingly, the
person is called a native speaker of the language, although one may
also be a native speaker of more than one language if all of the
languages are learned naturally without formal instruction, such as
through cultural immersion before puberty. Often a child learns the
basics of his or her first languages from his or her family.
The terms first, native, and mother can be misleading. It is quite
possible that the first language learned is no longer a speaker's
dominant language, and therefore no longer the first language. Young
immigrant children, whose families have moved to a new linguistic
environment may lose, in part or in totality, the language they first
acquired.
Good skills in one's native languages are essential for further
learning, as a native language is thought to be a base of thinking.
Incomplete first language skills often make learning other languages
difficult. Native language has therefore a central role in education.
The term "mother tongue" should not be interpreted to mean that it is
the language of one's mother. In some paternal societies, the wife
moves in with the husband and thus may have a different first language,
or dialect, than the local language of the husband. Yet their children
usually only speak their local language. Only a few will learn to speak
their mothers' languages like natives. Mother in this context probably
originated from the definition of mother as source, or origin; as in
mother-country or land.
One can have two or more native languages, thus being a native
bilingual or indeed multilingual. The order in which these languages
are learned is not necessarily the order of proficiency. For instance,
a French-speaking couple might have a daughter who learned French
first, then English; but if she grew up in the United States, she is
likely to become more proficient in English.
The Brazilian linguist Cleo Altenhofen considers the denomination
"mother tongue" in its general usage to be imprecise and subject to
various interpretations that are biased in linguistic prejudices,
especially with respect to bilingual children from ethnic minority
groups. He cites his own experience as a bilingual speaker of
****tuguese language and Riograndenser Hunsrückisch, a German-rooted
language brought to Southern Brazil by the first German immigrants. In
his case, like that of many children whose home language differs from
the language of the environment (the 'official' language), it is
debatable which language is his 'mother tongue'. Many scholars gave
definitions of 'mother tongue' through the years based on common usage,
the emotional relation from the speaker towards the language, and even
its dominance in relation to the environment. However, all of these
criteria lack precision.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_language
Don Phillipson wrote:
> "RafaMinu" <rafaminu@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:1158521005.442933.292940@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> > 2- Spanish is as native to the US as English. In fact, it has been
> > spoken uninterruptedly there since much earlier than English has.
>
> You are mistaken, so far as "native language" is
> concerned, i.e. that first learned in childhood and
> still understood. The native language of US nationals
> is about 80 per cent English.
>
> --
> Don Phillipson
> Carlsbad Springs
> (Ottawa, Canada)
|
