first language

Language a person was raised speaking from birth

Entitytype of language Wikibase reason for preferred rankQ36870

Also known as native language · mother tongue · arterial language · L1 · mother language · father tongue

Instance of: type of language
, Wikibase reason for preferred rank
Subclass of: language

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one's ethnic group rather than the individual's actual first language. Generally, to state a language as a mother tongue, one must have full native fluency in that language.

Overview

All data

48 statements · 15% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Main Wikidata property: native language
population by native language
Opposite of: foreign language
Followed by: second language
Different from: indigenous language
L1
Studied by: sociolinguistics
Facet of: first language acquisition

On other databases

35 identifiers linking first language across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

15%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 6, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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Cite this page

AIDB. (2026). first language (Q36870). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/first-language-Q36870