# Native speaker



## rusita preciosa

How do you say *"native speaker"* in your language?

I like the Russian term: *носитель языка* /nositel' yazyka/ = carrier of the language.


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## bibax

It is a problematic term in Czech.

The language schools here use "rodilý mluvčí" for the native-speaker teachers which sounds silly because "mluvčí" means spokesperson.

"Nositel jazyka" (carrier of a language, like in Russian) is also possible but it sounds somewhat stilted. Nositel jazyka is rather a nation than a person.

I am affraid that we have no proper short term for "native speaker" in Czech.


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## sakvaka

In *Finnish* we make use of the borrowed term _natiivi_. Another option is a longer explanation, _kieltä äidinkielenään puhuva_ (who speaks the tongue as their mother tongue).


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## poorBear

rusita preciosa said:


> How do you say *"native speaker"* in your language?
> 
> I like the Russian term: *носитель языка* /nositel' yazyka/ = carrier of the language.


 
Hi
In French we say : de langue maternelle française.


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## Orlin

In Bulgarian we also use носители на езика but it is relatively rare (mainly in linguistic texts). Otherwise we use other expressions for describing this: тези, на които ... език е роден/ майчин is the most usual and literally means these/ those whom ... language is native/ maternal.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
1-Φυσικός ομιλητής
fisi'kos omili'tis->natural speaker
2-Γηγενής ομιλητής
ʝiʝe'nis omili'tis->native speaker
with the first one more preferable

[ʝ] is a voiced palatal fricative


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## Frank78

In German it´s "Muttersprachler". Similar to the French version.

Mutter=mother
-sprachler (exists only as suffix)=speaker


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## Rallino

We don't have a specific term for that in Turkish. We say: _*ana dili olarak konuşan*_ which litterally equates to: _one who speaks the language as his/her mothertongue._


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## Frank06

Hi,

In *Dutch* we'd use _moedertaalspreker_ (mother+language+speaker). 
But in more technical texts, the English word _native speaker_ is used too (which is given as a synonym in the authorative dictionary Van Dale).

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Outsider

Oddly, Portuguese does not seem to have a native term for native speaker, although it does have one for native language. I've often used _falante nativo_ or _nativo_ for short here in the forums, but this is actually a calque of English, and doesn't sound quite right, as the word _nativo_ has more a connotation of "indigenous inhabitant" of some place.

The concept can certainly be paraphrased, for example a native speaker of Portuguese can be described as _aquele que fala o português como primeira língua_ (similar to Rallino's reply for Turkish, above), or more simply _de língua materna portuguesa_ (like poorBear's reply for French).


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## Ellis91

In Welsh there's no word for it either, so to convey something like "native Welsh speaker" you'd probably say: _â Chymraeg fel mamiaith, _literally "with Welsh as mothertongue". I suppose you could say _siaradwr brodorol_ (native speaker) but like in Portuguese that seems a calque of English and doesn't sound very natural (for the same reason as Portuguese it seems!).


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## kittykate

In *Italian* we say _madrelingua_ (mother tongue), which is pretty much the same as in French and German.

_Sono madrelingua (italiana)_ = I am an (Italian) mother tongue

caterina


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## linguist786

poorBear said:


> Hi
> In French we say : de langue maternelle française.


On cherche plutôt la traduction pour "native speaker". En français c'est:
 
*(un) locuteur natif*
** 
n'est-ce pas?


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## amikama

Hebrew:

*דובר שפת אם* (mother language speaker)


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## Encolpius

*Hungarian*

we use the German pattern: (magyar, német, angol...) anyanyelvű

[anya = mother + nyelvű = of langauge]


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## Hakro

sakvaka said:


> In *Finnish* we make use of the borrowed term _natiivi_. Another option is a longer explanation, _kieltä äidinkielenään puhuva_ (who speaks the tongue as their mother tongue).


Note that the term _natiivi_ is a very new loan; I believe it has been used only for a couple of years. 

In addition to what Sakvaka said, we often use the word _synnynnäinen_, "natural-born", that can also be translated "native".


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## curly

In Irish it's cainteoir dúchais.

Which comes from ag caint -to speak, plus teoir - person who and dúchais which means native/home as in baile dúchais -home town.


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## mataripis

Tagalog: 2 words can be used. 1.) He is a native speaker of Tagalog.(Tubong Tagalog siya)  2.) He is a real Tagalog.(Taal na Tagalog siya)=referring to the place of Tagalog people.


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## inter1908

In *Polish* you have to make a sentence, like "Moim językiem ojczystym jest Polski." (My native language is Polish.). There isn't any word for a "native speaker", if we really have to use it we use the English one (sometimes it's written phonetically like "nejtiw spiker").


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## SuperXW

It's interesting that we can't find an exact translation of "native speaker" in many languages, neither in *Chinese*. 
My best attempt is "...是母语的人" or "母语是...的人", both meaning "people whose mother language is ..."


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## AutumnOwl

_*Swedish:*_
_Har x som modersmål = have x as their maternal language._


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## Tamar

> Hebrew:
> 
> *דובר שפת אם* (mother language speaker)



To add to that, in linguistics we refer to

דובר ילידי dover yelidi (lit. native speaker.) (msc.)
דוברת ילידית doverrt yelidit (fm.)


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## 涼宮

inter1908 said:


> In *Polish* you have to make a sentence, like "Moim językiem ojczystym jest Polski." (My native language is Polish.). There isn't any word for a "native speaker", if we really have to use it we use the English one (sometimes it's written phonetically like "nejtiw spiker").



The dictionary gives the term *rodowity użytkownik języka*. 

In Spanish, we have the term ''hablante nativo'', or simply we say '' nativo'' for instance, él es nativo del irlandés. Lit: he is a native of Irish. But the term ''hablante nativo'' is not very used. We can also say ''lengua madre/materna'' in a sentence, her mother tongue is Russian = su lengua madre es ruso.


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## Rallino

涼宮 said:


> [...]
> We can also say ''lengua madre/materna'' in a sentence, her mother tongue is Russian = su lengua madre es ruso.



Is it also possible to say _Madrelengua _? 

In Italian you can say: _Io sono di madrelingua giapponese._ (I'm a native speaker of Japanese.)

Can you say in Spanish: _Yo soy de madrelengua japonés_ or something similar?

Thanks in advance.


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## 涼宮

No. we cannot. But I like the term  But in your sentence it should be ''japonesa'' if madrelengua existed. Soy de madrelengua japonesa. (I really like the term specially as madrelingua, I think I will start using it for fun )

I'm a native speaker of Japanese would be: Soy nativo del japonés, mi lengua materna/madre es el japonés, mi primera lengua es japonés.

Fortunately when we say ''native speakers'' in general, we can say ''nativos'' and it doesn't sound that weird, so we avoid making long sentences. Of course the context must be clear that we talk about languages, or ''nativo'' can mean other things, like a native person born in a certain region.


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## mataripis

*Tagalog: Mananalitang tunay     *Dumaget: manorotdi matud


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## inter1908

涼宮 said:


> The dictionary gives the term *rodowity użytkownik języka*.


 Nice one! I didn't know about it. It sounds too official though, I'd probably laugh if someone would use it in a conversation. Besides it's faster and easier to say "native speaker" than use this term. Good to know anyway.


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## rusita preciosa

mataripis said:


> *Tagalog: Mananalitang tunay *Dumaget: manorotdi matud


Could you provide literal translation in English since most people here do not speak Tagalog or Dumaget?


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## mataripis

rusita preciosa said:


> Could you provide literal translation in English since most people here do not speak Tagalog or Dumaget?


      Both statements say " The true speaker"


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## Explorer41

Orlin said:


> In Bulgarian we also use носители на езика but it is relatively rare (mainly in linguistic texts). Otherwise we use other expressions for describing this: тези, на които ... език е роден/ майчин is the most usual and literally means these/ those whom ... language is native/ maternal.


It's the same in Russian, in reality. I personally don't like the term "носитель языка", it reminds me partly of bureaucracy, partly of "disease carriers" ("переносчики заболеваний"). When wishing to describe such a person in casual circumstances, I use something like "люди, для которых ... язык родной", just as you do (the exact wording highly depends on a particular situation). So I feel too, I miss a term like "native speaker". Unfortunately we don't have a good word for a speaker (noun) -- that's where the trouble comes from.


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## terredepomme

Korean : 原語民


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## AutumnOwl

In Swedish you can also say _"Hon pratar svenska som en infödd" - "She speaks Swedish as an in-born/native"_


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## LilianaB

I agree with Inter. I think the term native speaker does not exist in any of the languages I speak, except English. You have to make a sentence or quite a long phrase to describe it. Some Polish linguists use this horrible term natywny.


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## CarlitosMS

In Spanish we say *"hablante nativo"*.


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## Encolpius

*Slovak*: rodený hovoriaci


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## bibax

> Slovak: rodený hovoriaci


It sounds like _"born speaker"_ (he is a born speaker).


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## Encolpius

bibax said:


> It sounds like _"born speaker"_ (he is a born speaker).



I just translated the Czech rodilý mluvčí, I am not sure if it exists in Slovak.


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## vianie

Encolpius said:


> I am not sure if it exists in Slovak.



 No, it does not.  There are too few people who would need to express this in our language.


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## Youngfun

SuperXW said:


> It's interesting that we can't find an exact translation of "native speaker" in many languages, neither in *Chinese*.
> My best attempt is "...是母语的人" or "母语是...的人", both meaning "people whose mother language is ..."


Also: 母语者、母语人士。"person of mothertongue"
"Native speaker population" (used in statistics and research): 母语人群



kittykate said:


> In Italian we say madrelingua (mother tongue), which is pretty much the same as in French and German.
> 
> Sono madrelingua (italiana) = I am an (Italian) mother tongue
> 
> caterina



Also: parlante nativo / locutore nativo.


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## LilianaB

Yes you are right, but it cannot be used in the same way as the English word,. Nobody really uses it much -- I cannot think about the context where it could be used. It is simply a calque. They use "natywny", which is really terrible -- phonetically especially.Re: 23 Polish expression. "Natywny" cannot be used so far in any academic writing, but unfortunately I have recently seen it in one study.  This would raise the ethnic issues -- the Polish expression.It is directly related to ethnicity. If someone was Russian but their L1 was was Polish, or even Jewish - Yiddish speaking (in the past) they may not be characterized as "rodowity" -- this is why this expression is hardly ever used because it tells you more about the ethnicity than language, which is not nice.         


Re: 23 Rodowity uzytkownik jezyka.


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## Youngfun

Rallino said:


> n Italian you can say: _Io sono di madrelingua giapponese._ (I'm a native speaker of Japanese.)


People also say: _Io sono un madrelingua giapponese._
But grammatically it's not very correct. See madrelingua italiano.


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## mataripis

I remember now that Native speaker is "Taal na mananalita" in Tagalog.


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## Beli Breg

In Serbian we say "izvorni govornik (изворни говорник)", which means original/authentic speaker.


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## Dymn

Catalan:
_(parlant) nadiu _masculine
_(parlant) nadiua _feminine

Nothing interesting, just 'native (speaker)'


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## spindlemoss

Ellis91 said:


> In Welsh there's no word for it either, so to convey something like "native Welsh speaker" you'd probably say: _â Chymraeg fel mamiaith, _literally "with Welsh as mothertongue". I suppose you could say _siaradwr brodorol_ (native speaker) but like in Portuguese that seems a calque of English and doesn't sound very natural (for the same reason as Portuguese it seems!).



The traditional way of saying "a Welsh speaker" is *Cymro Cymraeg* (Welsh-speaking Welshman) or *Cymraeg Gymraeg* (Welsh speaking Welsh woman), although that's less politically correct these days i.e. being a Welsh-speaker doesn't necessarily mean you're a Welsh man or woman, so you hear the less idiomatic *siaradwr Cymraeg* (Welsh speaker).

Instead of *siaradwr brodorol* (native speaker), I guess we might use *iaith gyntaf* (first language) e.g. *siaradwr iaith gyntaf* (first language speaker) or *Mae'n siarad Swahili (yn/fel) iaith gyntaf* (He/She speaks Swahili (as a) first language).


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## 810senior

Japanese:
母語話者 bogowasha (a mother tongue speaker)
ネイティブスピーカー neitibu supiikaa (native speaker; loan word), also shortened to ネイティブneitibu(native).


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## Gavril

spindlemoss said:


> *Cymraeg Gymraeg* (Welsh speaking Welsh woman)



This should be _*Cymraes* Gymraeg. _(Correction made at Spindlemoss's request.)

Armenian: I am not sure whether it has a widespread phrase meaning "native speaker", but you can say e.g.  Մայրենի լեզուս հայերենն է (_Maireni lezus hayerenn e) "_My mother tongue is Armenian". The -_s_ at the end of _lezus_ is a possessive marker.


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## marrish

A "native speaker" in Urdu and especially for Urdu speakers, is ahl-e-zabaan اہلِ زبان which doesn't limit the meaning by birth, "nativeness" etc. but is broad. It's literal translation "man(-en)/woman(-en)/people etc. of the language. You can say in other words "belonging to the language" and it is actually not necessary that it was the first language you learnt after your birth. You can be perfectly versed in Urdu, your style, idiomatic usages and be a source of _*isnaad *(attestation of the true usage). _It is not necessary to be a "mother tongue" native speaker in order to be the owner of the language (ahl-e- can also be translated "those who possess sth"), Allamah Iqbal is a prominent example, Ahmad Faraz. All those people who belong to a language or own it are included.


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## spindlemoss

Gavril said:


> This should be _*Cymraes* Gymraeg. _(Correction made at Spindlemoss's request.)



Sorry, typing quicker than I think!


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## ilocas2

Czech:

*rodilý mluvčí* - native speaker (male or generally)
*rodilá mluvčí* - native speaker (female)


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## shoddy

َAccording to the Millennium English-Persian Dictionary, "native speaker" can be translated into Persian as "اهل زبان" or "سخنگوی بومی". Their transliterations are "Ahl-e-zaban" and "Sokhangou-ye-boumi" respectively. However, we can use the suffix "‌زبان" after the name of the language. For example, English speaker can be translated as "انگلیسی زبان", transliterated as "Ingilisi zaban". In this way, we specifically mention what language the person in question speaks. In everyday dialogue, some people use the word "native" without any change too.


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## kloie

In Serbian I also see maternji jezik.


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