native language

== English == === Alternative forms === (language of a Native or Aboriginal people): Native language === Etymology === From native +‎ language. === Pronunciation === === Noun === native language (plural native languages) One's first language, learned in early childhood. Synonyms: mother language, mother tongue, native tongue 2007 November 23, on “Teaching Spanish; Holiday Debt”, John Gibson Show, Fox Radio: Mary Katharine, one of the things in California, kids apparently who speak English as a second language have a year in which they can take classes that are taught in their native language in addition to English, and some people would say that that should help them really get established and after that, you're on your own, go take all the tests in English. The language of a Native or Aboriginal people. 2006, Robin Maria DeLugan, “‘South of the Border’ at the NMAI”, in American Indian Quarterly, v 30, n 3/4 (fall), pp 558–573: The irony of the Bibles and their translation into Native languages during the same period in which Native children were punished, even beaten, for speaking their language is another point left unexplored in the galleries of the NMAI. ==== Synonyms ==== birthtongue ==== Translations ====