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Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Mother language

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English vol.
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Mother language  (MOTHER language)


The population may be classified by the language 1 or dialect 2 habitually spoken. A distinction is drawn between an individual’s mother language 3 or mother tongue 3 which is the language spoken in his home in his earliest childhood, and his usual language 4, which is the language customarily used by him. The distinction between the two is not always very easy among people who are bilingual 5 or multilingual 5. The statistics that present information on these topics are called statistics of language 6.

  • 1. Language, n. - linguistic, adj.
    Linguistics, n.: the study of the nature, structure, origin and meaning of language and human speech.
  • 2. Dialect, n. - dialectal, adj. A dialect is a variety of language that is distinguished by its pattern of pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary.
  • 5. Bilingual, adj. - bilingualism, n.

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