From: Eric Schwartz <emschwar@...>
Date: 2003-05-09T05:54:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Symbiosis offer: trade Ruby for German :-)

gabriele renzi <surrender_it@remove.yahoo.it> writes:
> il Thu, 8 May 2003 05:49:10 +0900, "Josef 'Jupp' Schugt" <jupp@gmx.de>
> ha scritto::
> >In contrast to many Germans that are in the process of forgetting
> >their mothers tongue.
> 
> :)
> I suppose it is "home language".

"Mother tongue" is perfectly valid in English, as well.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:

  mother tongue
       n : one's native language; the language learned by children and
           passed from one generation to the next [syn: {maternal
           language}, {first language}]

> I usually make this error cause in italian 
> "tongue" == the red thing you have in your mouth and you use to lick
> ice cream == "lingua"
> and
> "language" == the way you speak == "lingua"
> 
> nice to see german is so similar ;P

As is English, which is only fair, since we "borrowed" the word
'tongue' from the Germans 700 or 800 years ago.

So at least in English, you haven't been making an error after all. :)

-=Eric
-- 
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