Thread: What's your native language?

Some people claim to know two languages as their native. How come? It's possible to have only one native language. The language of the country where you were born and spent most of your life. That's the native language!

I have split my life almost evenly between two countries, speaking both languages in childhood. How, precisely, am I expected to choose ?

Russian

american english...but what if you grew up with your grandma and she only spoke french and you only spoke french with her and then moved in with your mum when you were 5, and she only speaks english...and u speak both? heeehh?

English

Russian, Russian!

Originally Posted by pookie123

american english...but what if you grew up with your grandma and she only spoke french and you only spoke french with her and then moved in with your mum when you were 5, and she only speaks english...and u speak both? heeehh?

If you maintain both languages evenly, they are both your native language. But if you can express yourself very well in one but struggle with the other, then you have one native language and a second language. Not meaning that you are not bilingual, but the harder language is not your native tounge.

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 9:54 am Post subject:

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Some people claim to know two languages as their native. How come? It's possible to have only one native language. The language of the country where you were born and spent most of your life. That's the native language!

What about people who are born in a country and speak that country's language and at home speak another language. That's my case
English and French
Cheerful

hellooooo
My mother tonghe is Spanish. I disagree whit people who think is imposible to be bilingual. Because you only have to think in marriage between people from differents countries. It is easy that children will be able to speak and think in both languages.

Russian!

English/Japanese/Spanish, but English the most.

American English

Swedish, and I too must say that it

and my language is Polish

My mother tongue is Spanish (Spain). I recently joined this forum because I begun studying russian last september. I also needs pracice my english. Thus that is the perfect forum. I have not seen many spaniards here . If anyone need help with spanish please let me know it will be a pleasure.

No, you can only have one native language. Whoever says they have more than one are deluding themselves. Yes, it is possible to speak other languages with near-native fluency but you can only have one mother tongue.

Question is, how do we find out what a person's native language is if he/she is claiming to have two or more native languages? Well, we used to have a very simple way of finding out (somewhat cruel though, but very effective) - you just beat that person real bad and I mean real bad, like with clubs, etc., the important thing is you knock'em sensless. When they come to, the first phrase will always be in their one and only mother tongue. Simple as that. Hundreds of thousands of moles have been uncovered using this simple method.

No, you can only have one native language. Whoever says they have more than one are deluding themselves. Yes, it is possible to speak other languages with near-native fluency but you can only have one mother tongue.

Arrant nonsense. In any case, one's 'native language' need not necessarily be the language one speaks most fluently: I have an English friend who has spoken almost nothing but German for the past twenty years. She feels much more fluent in the latter than in the former - until last week, a 'mobile phone' was nothing more to her than a 'Handy' (sp?) - but there's no questioning that English is her native language, big sticks or nay.

Originally Posted by Lucas

My mother tongue is Spanish (Spain). I recently joined this forum because I begun studying russian last september. I also needs pracice my english. Thus that is the perfect forum. I have not seen many spaniards here . If anyone need help with spanish please let me know it will be a pleasure.

Ooh, Spain! I might consider learning the Spanish variant of Spanish someday, as I find everything about Spain so romantic. Plus, I already speak (limited) French, so that will help. Everyone in the US learns Mexican Spanish. How much of a difference is there between the two?

Originally Posted by joysof

No, you can only have one native language. Whoever says they have more than one are deluding themselves. Yes, it is possible to speak other languages with near-native fluency but you can only have one mother tongue.

Arrant nonsense. In any case, one's 'native language' need not necessarily be the language one speaks most fluently: I have an English friend who has spoken almost nothing but German for the past twenty years. She feels much more fluent in the latter than in the former - until last week, a 'mobile phone' was nothing more to her than a 'Handy' (sp?) - but there's no questioning that English is her native language, big sticks or nay.

Do 'native' speakers of English understand it when they read it? I said what I said and I repeat it again - one can only have one native language whether you like it or not. Never did I say that one's native language is the one you're most fluent in - you're putting words into my mouth, joysof, shame on you for not understanding the language you're supposed to be a native speaker of. In the case of your friend - German is not her native language at all, no matter how long she has spoken it, if, coming to, she babbles in English. (I wonder what language she screams in when she comes - play your cards well and you may find out I've been right all along, matey) . Following you logic you can say that Udmurt is my native language just because I was unfortunate to be forced to speak it in my childhood... Like hell it's my native language - I've forgotten all of it by now and good riddance to old rubbish, I would never have used it anyway, it would only have used up my braincells.
Like I said again - the pain/shock test dots all the i's (расставляет все точки над ё, as we say), no surprise Colonel Isaev aka Stirlitz said to whatsername not to give birth in Germany for she would have cried out in Russian when in labour.
BTW, aren't you the one who once claimed to have two native languages - English and French? Ever planning to come to St Pete? We could test you and the Dutch kid... You know, joysof, it's sooo easy to babble when one's sitting thousands of miles away... Believe me, face to face you wouldn't be so cocky.

Spain must be a cool place indeed cos they speak Spanish there! Best linguage in the world (after Danish, of course). I sometimes wonder why I'm learning English... By the way, do speakers of Spanish readily understand Catalan and Portugese? I saw text in all three of them - they looked very similar to me, but maybe the accents are quite different?

Originally Posted by Lucas

If anyone need help with spanish please let me know it will be a pleasure.

And of course if anyone need help with Polish, or would like to learn this language let me know too I will always try to help and do my best to explain something or to learn