birthtongue

plural birthtongues · alternative birth-tongue · alternative birth tongue

1. rareOne's first language, learnt in early childhood; native language.

   "No problem. Neo-Gaesh, and that's Orlen's birthtongue."

   1990, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon, Sassinak

   5 more examples

   In replying timidly, Anita revealed her foreign accent, which was instantly observed. “You are American, of course? No? English? Ah, how stupid I am!" Forthwith he began to talk fluently in German, though Anita saw it was not his birthtongue.

   1880, All the Year Round, volume 25, page 203

   And now I place them, palms up, wrong five-legged beasts with their underbellies exposed, on the desk for you who have told me, in your own broken wedding of English and your birthtongue, […]

   1976, Albert Goldbarth, Comings Back: A Sequence of Poems, page 78

   Faan talked constantly to herself and to anyone who'd listen, mixing the Fadogur she was learning with her birthtongue in a hash of sound that gradually grew more comprehensible.

   1991, Jo Clayton, Wild Magic, page 48

   Other forms of cultural non-homogeneity (birthtongue or ethnic identity, for example) have, in the generally supportive nature of the group process, tended to become not only not a problem, […]

   1998, Wojciech W. Gasparski, David Botham, Action Learning, page 112

   When this warning failed to cure the boys of recklessness, he made them recite the first apothegm of Tholjassan battle-dance at the start of every lesson — not just in Arquali, but also in their individual birthtongues: […]

   2010, Robert V. S. Redick, The Ruling Sea, page 195