Personal Information

[10] What is the mother tongue and second language of [the respondent]?

Individual information
After collecting the introductory and household information of data sheet 1, there are questions for individual information collection on the right side of the page. To write individual information, a row has been allocated for each member of the family. Sequence and rules for information collection have been put accordingly. In line with this, ask the question and fill the information. The response of each individual question should be written in the respective column.

Column 10: what is the mother tongue and second language of [the respondent]?

1. Mother tongue - The first language a person has learnt from his or her parents since early childhood and has grown up speaking it at home/family. In other words, the first language a person has learn from his parents since his first speaking and continue it for conversation at home, should be called mother tongue. When writing the mother tongue of newborn baby, write the first language the family speak at home. Different languages are spoken in various parts of Nepal. Write the first language of a person since he or she has been speaking from his first word of early childhood in the family as the mother tongue. If a person is dumb from the birth, then his mother tongue should be written as "sign language." There might be different mother tongue speakers in a family. Hence, there is the possibility that the mother tongue of household head and other members of the family differs.

Mother tongue can be different among different castes and ethnicities. Similarly, even people who are from same caste/ethnic community, their mother tongue can be different due to their living in different social and geographical environment. E.g. even if a person is from Magar ethnic community, he might not know how to speak Magar language. The mother tongue of a child born from the marriage of different language speakers or different castes might be different from the mother tongue of their mother or father.

At the time of enumeration, make the respondents clear about what is mother tongue and ask each person what is their mother tongue and write down. Some of the examples of mother tongues are Nepalese, - Maithili, Tharu, Newari, Bhojpuri, Magar, Thakali, Tamang, Limbu, Awadhi, etc.

2. Second language: Among the enumerated persons, some may know only one language and some can speak more than one languages. Above, we said the first language that a person learn at home form his parents since his first speaking in early childhood is mother tongue. If a person can speak another language besides his mother tongue, identify which language he is usually used to communicate with neighbors, at work or with others, and specify that language as the second language.

[p. 55]

In other words, mother tongue is the first language and among the languages learnt later in life, the commonly used language to speak with neighbors, at work or with others is the second language. Do not write the language learnt by a person later in his or life as second language that are mostly not in use while communicating with others (neighbors, at work). If a person speaks more than two languages, the mostly used language should be written as second language.

If a person does not know well another language besides the mother tongue, to indicate that the person does not know another language write a dash (-), do not leave the space in blank. Do not write the language as second language that is already specified under mother tongue.