Having more than one mother language

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the concept of having more than one mother language, exploring the implications of bilingualism and multilingualism in families, particularly in the context of children raised in such environments. Participants examine the scientific and experiential aspects of language acquisition and processing in the brain.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express skepticism about the idea of having two mother languages, suggesting that traditionally, there is only one mother language per individual.
  • Others argue that children in bilingual or multilingual families can develop proficiency in both languages from an early age, leading to questions about which language should be considered the "mother tongue."
  • One participant notes that children often switch languages based on the context and the language spoken by their interlocutor, indicating a fluidity in language use.
  • There are observations that while spoken proficiency may be high in both languages, writing skills in one language may be neglected.
  • Some participants reference the brain's processing of languages, suggesting that children raised in multilingual environments may process multiple languages similarly, potentially allowing for multiple mother tongues.
  • A later reply affirms the possibility of having more than one mother language, reflecting a shift in understanding based on the discussion.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally do not reach a consensus on whether it is scientifically reasonable to have more than one mother language. Multiple competing views remain, with some asserting the traditional view of a single mother language and others supporting the idea of multiple mother languages in multilingual contexts.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include varying definitions of "mother language," the influence of environmental exposure on language development, and the lack of empirical references to support claims about brain processing patterns.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to linguists, educators, parents in bilingual families, and individuals exploring language acquisition and cognitive processing related to multilingualism.

mech-eng
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Some people claim that they have two mother languages. This seems to me very strange. Is it reasonable or scientific to have more than one mother language? As far as I know, mother languages and foreign/learnt languages belong to different parts of brain. One of them was a immigrant family living in Britain. He has spoken both English and Turkish since he was born.

Thank you.
 
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mech-eng said:
Some people claim that they have two mother languages. This seems to me very strange. Is it reasonable or scientific to have more than one mother language? As far as I know, mother languages and foreign/learnt languages belong to different parts of brain. One of them was a immigrant family living in Britain. He has spoken both English and Turkish since he was born.
As far as I can judge from own experiences, there is only one mother language. This does not imply that children cannot grow up bilingual and I've heard of cases even trilingual. They then tend to neglect the writing in the second language while the spoken word is still excellent, and they automatically switch languages to the one the addressed person normally speaks, even if this person uses the other one. They intuitively know what the mother language of their dialogue partner is and choose this one to answer in. After a while they start to develop a dialect in their second language according to the first one, if they aren't forced to actually live in an environment that uses the second language. These are observations on single cases and from what I've once heard on a radio documentation about this issue. I do not claim that the above is always true, but in four out of four cases it was.
 
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I know quite a few families where the husband is American and the wife is foreign born. In many of these families, the children learn both languages from the time that they learn to speak. Since they live in the U.S., it might be reasonable to think that their mother tongue is English because that is what they are exposed to the most. However, some of these families regularly travel to the wife's country of origin for extended periods where her language is the commonly spoken one. If the child is equally versed in both languages, how can you say which is the "mother tongue"? I see those children bounce back and forth between languages like it's nothing. I do agree with @fresh_42 that some of the families tend to neglect writing skills in one of the two languages. However, some do focus on fully training their children in both.

BTW, I have seen this dynamic lead to some funny assumptions by young children. I knew a family where the husband was American and only spoke English but the wife was Russian and spoke that to their child. One day, my wife and I saw the mother and child while we were walking. I bent down and said the Russian word for hello to the child. She was very confused and said something in Russian to her mother. My wife and her mother both started laughing. The girl was confused because she thought that only women spoke Russian. :oldtongue:
 
Since this is GD, I'll cite the following without reference (too lazy to dig it up). My understanding is that the processing of foreign languages in the brain does not show the same activity pattern as that of the mother tongue, but for that children brought up in multilingual environments, different languages can be classified as mother tongues because the brain processes them the same.
 
DrClaude said:
Since this is GD, I'll cite the following without reference (too lazy to dig it up). My understanding is that the processing of foreign languages in the brain does not show the same activity pattern as that of the mother tongue, but for that children brought up in multilingual environments, different languages can be classified as mother tongues because the brain processes them the same.

Does this means having more than one mother language is possible?
 
mech-eng said:
Does this means having more than one mother language is possible?
As far as I understand it, yes.
 

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