Can you have more than one Native Language?

[LaVida]

Hi everyone,
I'd like to hear your opinion about whether you can have more than one native language.

A native language, what is this? Actually, there's no scientific definition of "native language" or "mother tongue". I guess for most people, it's the language they learn to speak when they grow up or the language that is spoken in their respective country. Linguists like to use the term "first" language better but still, it's a very complicated topic.

But did you know that you can actually "lose" your native language? For example, if you lived in a different country for many years, where they speak a different language, you might forget parts of your first language.

What about the people who grow up bilingual? Do they have two native languages? Do they consider their native language to be the one they use more often or is it the one that they feel more comfortably using?

As for me, I sort of grew up bilingual. My mother would speak English to me as a child but since we lived in a German speaking country, I'd also have to learn German. At some point, my German was so horrible/undeveloped that my mother stopped speaking English to me so I could learn German properly.

So yeah, I grew up in a German speaking country, so obviously, I've used German more often than English but still, I feel "closer" to English. It's more emotional to me. Whenever I have the opportunity to choose a language (e.g. in movies, games, books etc.), it's always English. My friends think it's weird that I prefer English although I grew up in Germany. Personally, I don't really know what my native language is. So, I like to think that I got more than one (;

Anyways, I'm looking forward to your replies! (:

 

[Legobricks]

I would consider my native language to be whatever I used the most during my life. I would also say it is pedantic to assume any value to one's language being 'native' or not; that's an appropriate term to use when discussing X region at Y time period, not individuals. Generally, I imagine, an area will only be multilingual in a state of flux, that is, one language will become more dominant than the other(s) due to something like cultural influence, until eventually only one of the present languages will be used. It isn't really this simple, as the resultant dialect of the region would then become a combination of its constituent languages. Given the way human cultures seem to expand and absorb one another, if the trend of globalisation continues indefinitely, in time all people will speak some future form of Anglo-Mandarin.

 

[MKGirlism]

Yes, you can.
There are countries that use two or more official languages, which you'll learn natively.
While my country has only one language, I have two native languages, because both my parents are/were Polish, and always spoke to me in Polish, while at Elementary School, in shops, at the road, etc., they always spoke Dutch to me.

 

[Esper]

In my mind "native language" was whatever language you picked up by exposure as a child (as opposed to one you were taught in school). I know of quite a few people who speak both English and Spanish fluently because their parents and many family members are native Spanish speakers but who are now living in predominantly English speaking America. They grew up with both languages around them.

But I only grew up with English so I can't really speak with as much experience.

 

[Ivysaur]

A native language, for me, is the one you learn "naturally", because you are around people who speak it all the time. If you need to get out of your way to learn it, then it's not a native language. I don't consider English to be my native language even though I speak it quite fluidly, because I had to study it while everybody around me was speaking Spanish all the time and when I went to school, I was already capable of speaking it at a child level, while I didn't know what English even was until I was 6.

 

[Star-Lord]

For myself, I would consider both French and English as my native languages. Simply because my country (supposedly) is bilingual. There are natives of the country whom speak both, and I grew up learning both. I use English much more in my day-to-day life, so I think that if I didn't practice my French I could "lose" it like the OP said.

I wouldn't feel comfortable saying I only have one "native language".

 

[Plumpyfoof]

I imagine your native language is the language you think in.
I can't imagine someone whose first language is Japanese thinking in English.

I also knew a guy who would speak English and half way through the sentence be speaking Italian before ending the story in English. Without realising he was changing languages and that no one knows what happened for the entire middle part of the story. His thoughts were like that too, switching randomly between English and Italian. So I guess he would have two native languages.

 

[MKGirlism]

Actually, I have my thoughts in Dutch, Polish, and English, depending on which language I used last.
English is not my native language, I consider a language as "native", if you learned it naturally before you turn 6 years old.
I learned English for the first time in Group 7 at an Elementary School, that's when I was 11 years old.

 

[s0nido]

I think your native language is the language you grew up with and are most comfortable with. For example, my mother, who grew up in Eritrea (a small African country for those of you who don't know) speaks fluent Italian and is most comfortable with that language more than the several others she learned. I also think it's possible to have more than one mother tongue, since you might grow up being exposed to different languages, thus learning them all fairly fluently and being comfortable with them.

 

[Ivysaur]

I imagine your native language is the language you think in.
I can't imagine someone whose first language is Japanese thinking in English.

My first language is Spanish and I randomly think in English- I am right now. I don't think it's as simple as that. You can speak a language in just an advanced level and yet be forced to think in it because it's absolutely impossible to "translate your thoughts" on the go- either you switch your brain from a language to another or it's going to sound really awkward.

 

[Altairis]

I think it's just whichever language you grow up learning and actually speaking. I learned French in elementary school, but we never spoke it outside of class (or even in class tbh??) so although I grew up learning it since kindergarten I wouldn't consider it a native language.

However, I know these kids that speak 3 languages because they speak a different one at school and home (+ English because they live in America), so I'm assuming they'd probably say those 3 are their native languages. I think that's pretty cool. My mother knows some Italian and Spanish and never taught me as a kid, which is kinda disappointing, haha. Now I have to learn it the hard way!

@also I don't really think it's whichever you think it, especially when you're still in school, because we wouldn't get anything done in Spanish class if we thought in English then translated then spoke, etc.

 

[Aeroblast]

If you're from a bilingual country or city (Brussels for example), I guess you could say you have two native languages.

 

[Plumpyfoof]

I wish I could speak two languages, it really opens up your mental capacity for some reason. But someone said they think in different languages without having to translate on the go or something (sorry too lazy to scroll back up). That would be your secondary language reaching a level of fluency such that your brain has made the same connections with that vocabulary as your original language has with its respective vocabulary.
I think because they are on par with their fluency one can't really be put in front of the other, other than the fact that one was learnt first.
I maintain this situation accurately representing two natural languages, although I'm sure most of you disagree.

 

[LaVida]

Alright, thank you for your replies so far! I think they were quite interesting!

Isn't it a little surprising that there's no scientific definition of "native language"?

I study "Transcultural Communication" (which is basically something like Translation and Interpreting" in university and one of the professors told us that certain "myths" regarding so-called native languages are not true. Some of these myths claim that the language you dream in is your native language or it's the language that you curse in.

But actually, if you dream in a certain language, it could also mean that you've been focusing on studying said language a lot in the past. It doesn't mean that you're fluent in it. (Although of course, people usually dream in their native language.)

People may curse in a "foreign" language as the foreign language is less inhibiting. As a child, you learn in your native language that using bad words is inappropriate, so you're more unwilling to use them. But in a foreign language, you've never had anybody tell you as a child that it's inappropriate. (The emotional aspect of the language is missing.) That's why some people might curse in a different language other than their native language(s).

I imagine your native language is the language you think in.

This is interesting. I'd say it depends on what you mean by "think in". People may think in a foreign language when they're in school but I believe what you meant to say is that a native language is the one you think in unconsciously most of the time. Like, if you're on the bus coming home from work and you ponder over what has happened and over what you will do at home etc. etc.

I agree, thinking constantly in one language might be one way to determine a native language. If you're not fluent in a language and don't have the emotional background of a language, you will probably not think in it.

But I think that, if you've lived long enough somewhere where they speak a different language, you will at some point have developed such fluency in this language that you might also think in it (unconsciously.)

 

[Juno]

I consider both English and Chinese my native languages. I was born in Canada, and during my toddler years (before pre-school, let's say), my parents spoke Chinese around me, while our housekeeper spoke English, as did my older brothers. Once I started going to school, of course, English became the primary language I spoke, but with other kids that also knew Chinese, we could switch between the two languages during conversation, and also at home I'd mostly speak in Chinese. In terms of what language I think in, it depends on which language I most recently used. For instance, as I'm writing this and reading this thread, I'm thinking in English. If I just spoke in Chinese, I'd be thinking in Chinese.

The only thing that makes me feel a little closer to English than Chinese is the fact that I can't read and write in Chinese as well as I can in English, but verbally and cognitively I'd say they're both pretty even.

 

[Livewire]

I think for one to have multiple native languages, you'd have to learn them concurrently I would think - like say you're French, living abroad in the United States. Your parents would most likely speak French, but you'd also be exposed to English in schools and the media. I would also think that you'd have to be somewhat younger, say a toddler-adolescent, to be able to absorb both languages and be multilingual. (there's a reason you learn languages best while young - your brain is wired in such a way that is conducive to learning language(s))

 

[MxY]

Unfortunally I'm not bilingual, and I only speak italian. Anyway I think that the native language is the one that you learn in your family and in your home, that usually is the first place where you socialize with other people.

Regarding the dreams, I think that when you know more than one language you can dream in that certain language even if it isn't your native one.

 

[LoudSilence]

I come from a mixed background but was raised in America, so I currently know 3 languages. I honestly don't think I could call any of them my "native" language, however you'd define it -- I consider it merely an issue of semantics.

I think in any of them at any time depending on what I had recently said/read or what I'm thinking of saying/reading. I suppose you can use the term "native" language when dealing with a region or describing a certain demographic, but on the whole human beings can learn or forget any medium of communication through practise or neglect, respectively, even their first language.

My answer to your initial question then, I guess, is that I don't really like to define "native" language at all. We're all capable of learning and speaking any language we'd like, and it doesn't really "belong" to anyone. Our ideas of who speaks what and what someone's "first" language and "native" language is sometimes defines our perception of them and gives us preconceived notions of who they are, which is wrong but happens far too often.

Best to avoid it entirely and take languages for what they are -- just a way to connect with one another.

 

[zakisrage]

I was raised with three languages - Arabic, English, and French. Arabic was probably the first, since I was born in Lebanon and almost all the people there speak Arabic. My dad lived in Australia before he moved back to Lebanon, so he learned English. And when my family and I moved there when I was four, the rest of us learned English.

My mother was educated in a French-language school, and she speaks fluent French. Dad speaks French too, and so does his father. My dad's mother never managed to comprehend French completely - though she does know English. I actually like the French language - and it's very popular in many Arab countries, especially Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia since they were French colonies. (It's also popular in West Africa - one of my cousins lived in Senegal for two and a half years and when he moved back to Australia, he spoke better French than English.)

I probably speak English the best. I speak Arabic with other Lebanese only - everyone else I will speak to in English. I'm not too good with French, but I took a French class and managed to do okay.