First Language (Noun)
Meaning
One's native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next.
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- Her first language is Spanish, but she learned English in school and is now fluent in both languages.
- The linguistics class studied the effects of bilingualism on children who learn a second language before mastering their first language.
- For many children, their first language is the one spoken at home by their parents and other family members.
- The child struggled to learn to read in her second language, because she had only been literate in her first language, Mandarin.
- As an adult, she realized that her first language, Arabic, was an important part of her cultural heritage.