...you forget your mother language?

What if you forget your mother tongue?

This might seem like a weird idea since spoken language is the basis of communication for most of us and since we normally use it all the time it is hard to imagine to forget our mother tongue. Nevertheless, people who live for a long time in a country where a different language is spoken sometimes fear to loose their mother tongue when they adapt to their new environment and therefore adopt the new language.

So let's try to imagine what it would be like to forget your mother tongue. Probably it would start slowly. When you are in a situation in which you use your mother tongue, like for example when you call your parents, there would be a word which is on the tip of your tongue but you just can't recall it. This would happen more and more often so that your vocabulary would decrease more and more. So basically the opposite happens than when you learn a language. In addition, you would start struggling with the intonation or pronunciation of words in your mother language. Maybe you would also start translating from your second language to your mother language instead of doing it the other way around. All these are indications that the linguistic systems of your mother tongue and your learned language are in conflict. In consequence you would start feeling uncomfortable speaking your mother language. Thus you would use it even less often and continue forgetting. When you don't use your mother language, it can be dominated by a learned language you use instead. The phenomenon of forgetting your mother tongue is called attrition and it is not only accelerated by the less frequent usage of the language but also in case it is connected with negative emotions caused by bad memories for example. However, it is really hard to completely forget a language. Even though it can seem like it disappeared in the depth of your memories, the sound and grammar of your mother tongue are deeply enrooted in our brain which makes it easier to recall or re-learn this language.

Nevertheless, in my opinion it is much easier to simply use your knowledge or skills instead of forgetting them and having to learn them again.