Re: "Europeans and their languages" (2024)

On 2024-12-27 15:32:22 +0000, Christian Weisgerber said:

A news item make me look up the language skills in a particular
European country, which in turn led me to discover that there is a
whole new 2024 edition of the "Europeans and their languages"
Eurobarometer survey.
 https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2979
   Abstract
  The Eurobarometer survey on Europeans and their languages provides
  information on citizens' language skills, use of languages and
  attitude to language learning within the European Union. It also
  allows us to see the evolution over time, as results are compared
  with the previous language survey conducted in 2012.
 (No idea when/if I'll find the time to look at the whole thing.)

Thanks. Interesting. However, there is a question of definition that is important in this context: what is one's "mother tongue"? My mother tongue is clearly English, and my wife's is equally clearly Spanish, but our daughter's? She has been hearing both since the day she was born (indeed, before she was born, as my wife used to talk to her in the womb, as I did occasionally), and she has been fluent in both at least since she was three. However, she was educated in French, and that is the language she uses every day. She has been effortlessly trilingual since the age of five.
--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly in England until 1987.