First language

The monument for the Mother (Azerbaijani) language in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan

A first language (also mother language, mother tongue, native language, arterial language, or L1) often means the language that a person learns first. It helps one understand words and concepts in the style of that language.

Sometimes, but not often, first language means the language that a person speaks best (the second language is then spoken less well than the first language, etc.). In that sense, a person could have more than one first or second language.

The first languages of the national majority usually are to be recognized as national languages of the nation.

References


Uses material from the Wikipedia article First language, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.