Midder tongue

Da Oxford English Dictionary defineetion o mother tongue is “one’s native language; a first language” (sv), firbye dis hit’s referred til as a L1 an noo an agein as a ‘mother language’. Da term is attestit fae 1425. Da term native language can sometimes be seid tae be spaekin aboot a languoid o a ethnic group, ridder as da foremaist language o a single body. A body can growe up tae hae mair as ee midder tongue or L1, an a body in dat caess wid be bilingual or multilingual. In fact mair fokk growes up as bein bi- or multilingual aroond da wirld as dem at’s monolingual (see below).

Da foremaist language(s), da midder tongue(s), is a pairt o ony body’s social an cultural identity. Bit no aa midder tongues gits da sam recogneetion, an some is pitten doon fir nae raison o ony sense, certainly no ony scientific een. Hoosumivver, as pointit oot bi John Graham “a mother tongue is not easily eradicated” an so, trowe nivver leetin da needless stigma o Shaetlan fir dat lang, Shetlanders is “cultivated a bi-lingualism [sic] which [have] enabled them to communicate on two levels” (1993: xviii). We agree wi Christine De Luca (2018: 163):

I would contend that everything we do should be to enhance our mother tongue, retain its authenticity and build it up so that access to a rich linguistic heritage remains a worthwhile right to hand on to succeeding generations.

This brings me back to the importance of ensuring young people never succumb to the notion that their mother tongue is a debased language; indeed, to the whole issue of the categorisation of language versus dialect.

Shetland is bøn recognised as a bilingual community fir hunders o years. Noo is da time tae shaa dis aff as bein a acht tae hae firbye.

References:

De Luca, Christine. 2018. Mother tongue as a universal human right. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 20(1). 161-165. Available online here.

Graham, John. 1993. The Shetland Dictionary. Lerwick: The Shetland Times.