native speaker

See also: Native Speaker and native Speaker

English

Alternative forms

• NS (initialism)

Noun

native speaker (plural native speakers)

1. (linguistics) A person who grew up with a particular language as their mother tongue.

   Synonym: L1 speaker

   Antonym: non-native speaker

   Native speakers of English get paid much more than locals in the schools.

   • 1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 155:

     The differences between acceptable constructions like "Have you a book on modern music?" and unacceptable ones like "Read you a book on modern music?" need no Chomskyan signposts for a native speaker[.]

   • 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 106:

     In the past, secondary classrooms have perhaps been seen as largely native speaker environments, but this is certainly no longer the case and secondary teachers are fully aware they need pedagogies and materials that support the different language backgrounds and proficiencies of contemporary classrooms.

Related terms

• native-speaking

Translations

person who grew up with a particular language as their mother tongue

• Afrikaans: moedertaalspreker
• Arabic: نَاطِق أَصْلِيّ m (nāṭiq ʔaṣliyy)
• Armenian: լեզվակիր (hy) (lezvakir)
• Azerbaijani: dil daşıyıcısı
• Belarusian: но́сьбіт мо́вы m (nósʹbit móvy), но́сьбітка мо́вы f (nósʹbitka móvy)
• Bengali: আহলে জবান (bn) (ahle zôban)
• Bulgarian: носи́тел на ези́ка m (nosítel na ezíka), носи́телка на ези́ка f (nosítelka na ezíka)
• Catalan: parlant nadiu m, parlant nadiua f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 母語者 / 母语者 (mou⁵ jyu⁵ ze²), 母語人士 / 母语人士 (mou⁵ jyu⁵ jan⁴ si⁶)

  Mandarin: 母語者 / 母语者 (zh) (mǔyǔzhě), 母語人士 / 母语人士 (mǔyǔ rénshì)

• Cornish: kowser a vyghan m, kowsores a vyhan f
• Czech: rodilý mluvčí (cs) m, rodilý uživatel jazyka m
• Danish: modersmålstalende c
• Dutch: moedertaalspreker (nl) m, moedertaalspreekster f
• Esperanto: denaskulo
• Finnish: syntyperäinen puhuja
• French: locuteur natif (fr) m, locutrice native f
• Galician: falante nativo m, falante nativa f
• German: Muttersprachler (de) m, Muttersprachlerin (de) f, native speaker (de) m, native Speaker (de) m, Native Speaker (de) m (Duden), Muttersprachiger m (Swiss), Muttersprachige f (Swiss)
• Hawaiian: mānaleo
• Hebrew: דובר ילידי m (dovér yelidí)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: anyanyelvi beszélő
• Indo-Portuguese: falante nativo m
• Indonesian: penutur jati (id), penutur asli
• Irish: cainteoir dúchais m
• Italian: madrelingua (it) m or f
• Japanese: 母語話者 (ぼごわしゃ, bogowasha), ネイティブスピーカー (ja) (neitibu supīkā), ネイティブ (ja) (neitibu), ネイティブ話者 (neitibu washa)
• Kapampangan: tubong talasalita
• Khmer: វាគ្មិនភាសា (viəkmɨnphiəsaa), អ្នកនិយាយភាសាកំណើត (ʼnɑɑkniyiəyphiəsaakɑmnaət)
• Korean: 모국어 사용자(母國語使用者) (mogugeo sayongja)
• Macedonian: роден говорник m (roden govornik)
• Malay: penutur jati
• Manx: loayreyder dooghyssagh m, loayreyder dooie m
• Maori: arero ūkaipō
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: native speaker (pl) m, native speakerka (pl) f, rodzimy użytkownik języka m, rodzima użytkowniczka języka f, nosiciel języka m (rare, Russianism), rodowity użytkownik języka m, rodowita użytkowniczka języka f
• Portuguese: falante nativo m, falante nativa f
• Romanian: vorbitor nativ m, vorbitoare nativă f
• Russian: носи́тель языка́ m (nosítelʹ jazyká), носи́тельница языка́ f (nosítelʹnica jazyká)
• Scottish Gaelic: fileantach m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ѝзво̄рнӣ го̀во̄рнӣк m

  Roman: ìzvōrnī gòvōrnīk m

• Slovak: rodený hovoriaci m, rodený používateľ jazyka m
• Spanish: hablante nativo m, nativo (es) m
• Swedish: (person) med ... som modersmål, modersmålstalare (sv) c
• Tagalog: katutubong mananalita, katutubong tagapagsalita, katutubong tagapagwika
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: เจ้าของภาษา (th) (jâo-kɔ̌ɔng-paa-sǎa)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: носі́й мо́ви m (nosíj móvy), носі́йка мо́ви f (nosíjka móvy)
• Vietnamese: người bản ngữ
• Welsh: siaradwr brodorol m, siaradwraig frodorol f
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈneɪ̯tɪv ˈspiːkə/, /ˈneːtɪf ˈspiːkə/, /ˈneːtɪf ˈspiːkɐ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: na‧tive‧spea‧ker

Noun

native speaker m (strong, genitive native speaker, plural native speakers)

1. Alternative form of Native Speaker

Declension

Declension of native speaker [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	native speaker	die	native speakers
genitive	eines	des	native speaker	der	native speakers
dative	einem	dem	native speaker	den	native speakers
accusative	einen	den	native speaker	die	native speakers

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English native speaker.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɛj.tif ˈspi.kɛr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Syllabification: [please specify syllabification manually]

Noun

native speaker m pers (female equivalent native speakerka)

1. (linguistics) native speaker

   Synonym: rodzimy użytkownik języka

   Antonym: nierodzimy użytkownik języka

Declension

Declension of native speaker

	singular	plural
nominative	native speaker	native speakerzy/native speakery (deprecative)
genitive	native speakera	native speakerów
dative	native speakerowi	native speakerom
accusative	native speakera	native speakerów
instrumental	native speakerem	native speakerami
locative	native speakerze	native speakerach
vocative	native speakerze	native speakerzy

Further reading

• native speaker in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• native speaker in Polish dictionaries at PWN