How Many Native Tongues are Possible? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

How Many Native Tongues are Possible?
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

14 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

Henkkles
Triglot
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Finland
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Message 9 of 14

21 August 2013 at 12:28am | IP Logged

casamata wrote:

Henkkles wrote:

I think if you go to a summer camp as a kid it won't become a native language. I thought about this and I think the maximum is ~four languages. Parents speak different languages natively, communicate with each other in English as a "neutral" language and the fourth is the language of the country the kid lives in. That would be the maximum amount of manageable languages in my opinion, unless all languages were very close to each other. Like, the child has a Danish mother, a Dutch father and they lived in Germany, parents spoke English with each other and then they would often visit relatives in, say, Norway.

True that. The more languages you add, and I doubt that language knowledge is synergistic, the less proficient you will be at each individual language. You could have a child with 5 or 6 native languages but they won't have the same abilities in each language, just not possible. Will the child know all the slang, terms for politics, sports, science, whatever in each language. Well, no. Will they be very close to their monolingual classmates? Probably.

But let's think about it logically. If one identical twin studies a PhD in biology while his identical twin studies a PhD in biology, chemistry, and mathematics, who will be better in bio? Assuming equal variables in terms of hard work and environment (genetically they are identical), I would sure as heck bet on the twin specializing in one PhD in biology.

If you specialize in one thing like one language, you will be better than the guy that spreads himself thin amongst 5 languages, all other factors being equal.

That's why I mentioned the languages being close relatives; only the slang is to be expected to differ so greatly that all other topics needed to be learned anew.
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shk00design
Triglot
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Canada
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Message 10 of 14

21 August 2013 at 5:31am | IP Logged

Kids being fluent on multiple languages varies in different households.

When I was growing up, there are parents here who thought their kids should fit in with the mainstream.
The younger generation would grow up being spoken to in English and presumably have no knowledge
of their mother tongue besides a few simple words like "hello, good morning, good bye" sort of thing.

In 1 family the father is Austrian and the mother is Dutch. At home they spoke to each other in English.
The kids never got into learning German until their high school years although both languages are close
to English in the Germanic family. Now they are living and working in Europe and along the way they
picked up other European languages including Italian & Spanish.

Being fluent in the mother-tongue(s) other than the one used for daily interactions takes special effort
from the parents and the individual. You can talk to your kid in Italian all you want but if he is going to
answer back in English he can acquire enough listening skills to understand what is said but not enough
to be in a conversation in a social setting.

Some families think of kids learning a second of third language is important not only to expand their
horizons but would lead to better job opportunities in the future. There are those who would enrol their
kids to languages classes on weekends. Otherwise even without formal education, all it takes is 1 or
both parents making an effort to talk in their native language(s) and expecting a response the same.

I know a family where the father is Chinese and the mother is American. The Chinese half would be at
family gatherings talking in Chinese mostly but at the same time trying to accommodate a few younger
people who are more fluent in English. The kids are being brought up not knowing a single word in
Chinese, not even the basic greetings. Both parents are working. The father spends so much time at the
office every week that in his spare time the kids would be off to an amusement park or vacation
somewhere. Learning the mother-tongue isn't in their schedule.

On the other hand, it doesn't take much effort to immerse yourself in a language. From 1 week to the
next you can be watching pre-recorded TV series, movies, cartoons in your mother-tongue and pick up
words and phrases without being aware of it. Some people like to listen to pop songs by specific singers
in their language. Some families subscribe to programs from their native country on satellite TV. The
kids being exposed to their native language would be more fluent.

Edited by shk00design on 21 August 2013 at 5:32am
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Qaanaaq
Newbie
United States
Joined 3933 days ago
14 posts - 25 votes
Speaks: English*

Message 11 of 14

23 August 2013 at 7:27am | IP Logged

Definitely true on the languages being related...Richard Francis Burton apparently learned French, Italian,
Neapolitan, and several other dialects of Italian, when he was younger.
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Hekje
Diglot
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United States
Joined 4512 days ago
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Speaks: English*, Dutch
Studies: French, Indonesian

Message 12 of 14

23 August 2013 at 8:22am | IP Logged

shk00design wrote:

When I was growing up, there are parents here who thought their
kids should fit in with the mainstream. The younger generation would grow up being
spoken to in English...

In 1 family the father is Austrian and the mother is Dutch. At home they spoke to each
other in English.

I'm not sure the household language being English, at least in this example, was solely
an effort to "mainstream" the children. More likely it was the household language
because it was the parents' common language.

Edited by Hekje on 23 August 2013 at 8:24am
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beano
Diglot
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United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian

Message 13 of 14

23 August 2013 at 9:52am | IP Logged

shk00design wrote:

In 1 family the father is Austrian and the mother is Dutch. At home they spoke to each other in English.
The kids never got into learning German until their high school years although both languages are close
to English in the Germanic family. Now they are living and working in Europe and along the way they
picked up other European languages including Italian & Spanish.

Does that mean the parents never spoke their language with the children, even when just one parent was present?

I've never quite understood this business of refusing to pass your native tongue on to your kids, especially when the languages in question are strong European languages which are certainly not "useless"

Edited by beano on 23 August 2013 at 9:53am
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showtime17
Trilingual Hexaglot
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Slovakia
gainweightjournal.co
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Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish
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Message 14 of 14

25 August 2013 at 5:43pm | IP Logged

It all depends on what you define as a "native" language. I consider that I have 3 native languages, but the issue is more complicated than that. My parents are from different countries and when I was born their common language was Russian, so that is the first language that was spoken to me. So my "mother" tongue could be Russian, yet I don't consider it as my native language, since after my mother learned Slovak, she switched into speaking Slovak with me. I speak Russian with an accent, although if I was immersed in a native environment for a while, I could probably get it up to native level. I started school in Prague and so my best language was Czech for a long time (even after we moved to the US). When I was 10, we moved to the US and lived there for 5 years and so that's when I started speaking English. I managed to learn it to native level and so people would not be able to hear that I am not American. I had a very strong American accent.

However over time, I stopped using Czech and now have people comment that I have an accent when speaking. I also don't feel as comfortable speaking it anymore as I used to. Also I have been living in Europe now for a while and don't come into contact with Americans anymore, so I am afraid I am losing my American accent and adopting the non-native ways of speaking English, since I speak English mostly with non-native speakers now.

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