father tongue

noun father tongues

1. A separate language for expressing ideas, as opposed to the vernacular (mother tongue) which is employed for everyday speech. This also implies that the initial dichotomy – the mother tongue as the language of affect as opposed to the father tongue, as the language of cognitive development – needs to be questioned and redefined in the context of diasporic experience, maybe as the language one lives in as opposed to the lan

   Opposite: mother tongue

2. The form of language acquired through education and reading, as opposed to the dialect one grows up speaking; educated or formal language. It is not enough even to be able to speak the language of that nation by which they [books] are written, for there is a memorable interval between the spoken and the written language, the language heard and the language read. [...] The other [the language read] is the maturity and experience of that

   Opposite: mother tongue

3. A second language that one speaks fluently. Throughout their long history as a minority, Anglo-Indians learned their "father tongue" but were indifferent to their "mother tongue," an indigenous Indian language.
4. The language spoken by one's father, when it differs from that spoken by one's mother. Questions about respondents' place of birth, their parents' place of birth, nativity, and language use (called "mother tongue" and "father tongue") were added to the Census between 1850 and 1960.

   Opposite: mother tongue