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I'm very confused as to whether 'mother tongue' and 'first language' mean the same thing.

Considering the first three years of my life, I was surrounded by Hindi-speaking parents, so that makes Hindi my mother tongue, right? Then I began going to nursery/daycare at age 2½ or 3,and learnt letters for both Hindi and English, and that has been the case for most of my school life. I'm fluent at both and prefer either language on the basis of the situation I'm in.

If this adds anything - my inner monologue is mostly english, but I converse to actual people in hindi most of the time. I live in India, so speaking Hindi with people is obvious.

Does that mean I have two 'first languages'? Or the original language my parents spoke is my first language, and the rest second? I have to fill this info in a form and I've always thought English was my second language, but I'm confused now.

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Firstly, you can have more than one first language.

A first language is defined by two criteria - when did you start learning it, and how well did you speak it when you first reached adulthood.

If you started learning it as a small child, and were completely fluent by adulthood, it's a first language.

If you started learning it as a small child, but are not fluent by adulthood, it's a heritage language.

If you started learning it after early childhood, it's a second language. (Yes, even if you already knew 2 or more languages before it. You can have multiple second languages, too.)

In your case, it sounds like you have two first languages - Hindi and English. Both are languages you started learning in early childhood, and it sounds like you've reached adulthood fluent in both.

In contrast, I had a similar background in English and French until I was 12 (English speaking family, spoke French at preschool and school and English everywhere else), and then I stopped being exposed to French at all, and by adulthood I was only fluent in English. So English is my first language and French is my heritage language.

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  • Two first languages is bilingual. I never heard heritage language but assume it refers to your cultural heritage, not your schooling. Commented Nov 11 at 17:11
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Generally speaking, there is a mother tongue and other languages. The first language is generally a mother tongue, unless something unusual happens.

You may not know your mother tongue completely fluently but it is the first language you learned.

However, you could call yourself bilingual since you seem to use both equally and that is borne out by your studies. However, to be bilingual your knowledge of both has to be at the same level.

I won't provide references for this as I consider myself a reference having grown up in a similar language environment and because I am a translator/interpreter. These terms are standard.

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