The “Other Mother” Tongue

Mother tongue- a word that every multilingual person is familiar with. The first verbal language an infant learns to communicate with his/her mother. I say ‘verbal’ because a child starts communicating much before they even learn a language. How beautiful is the notion of “mother tongue” that gives us an identity, and weaves us into a thick cultural fabric? It thus gives us a sense of belongingness and a place in society, encouraging us to take up the duty of upholding the traditions and customs of the spoken word. For multilingual individuals, the journey of language acquisition is a captivating interplay between their mother tongue and other languages they encounter. But this very interplay can hinder or inhibit language usage and propagation in its purest form, that is, without any borrowed vocabulary from other languages.

My life has been revolving around moving places all over India every two to three years. My father is an Army Officer and since childhood, I have changed more than 10 cities and 8 schools. I am a native of Mumbai, Maharashtra and the local language Marathi holds the position of “Mother tongue” for me. But living in different cities every three years comes with major language gaps. I remember my Hindi being terrible, but learning it was a necessity as that was one language that worked almost everywhere. I had just started learning English so it was not great either. Trevor Noah once said, “ Accent is when a person speaks a foreign language with the rules of their own.” So, with a Marathi undertone, I tried speaking Hindi all the time.

One such hilarious instance was when I was about 4 years old and used to address my father by his first name. One day my mother came and asked me where he was and I wanted to say that he was sleeping in the bedroom. Now, in Hindi, it is said “ Voh andar sorahe hain” and in Marathi, we say “ Aatmadhye Jhoplay”. These two sentences got amalgamated in my brain and what I spoke out loud was “Voh So-lay”. This was 15 years ago when I was in the process of learning the language. Now that I can read, speak and write Hindi, it appears in my spoken English as well as Marathi. The other day, I could not recall the word “rote learning” for some reason so instead I said “ ratta-fication.” The appendage “no..?” after every sentence is similar to saying “na?” in Hindi like “it's like this only, no…?” A very Bangalorean style would be adding “da” in place of  “na”.

The relationship between a person's mother tongue and other languages is dynamic and reciprocal. As individuals learn and use additional languages, they unknowingly bring elements of their mother tongue into the process, such as grammar structures or vocabulary. Conversely, exposure to new languages can enrich one's mother tongue, fostering a harmonious interplay of linguistic influences. It depends on the point of view of the people whether this is “enriching” or “adulterating” one’s mother tongue. Finally, no one language can, in this day and age, stand on its own without being intertwined with the other. That is the sheer beauty of languages.

Image source: The Telegraph Online