Laura Vuillemin
Can We Forget Our Native Language?
Recently, I traveled to a foreign country where I only spoke the local language. I was on my own and met people who only spoke their language. For this reason, there was no possibility for me to speak French.
Nothing better, though, to immerse myself completely in the culture! And I was delighted to be able to practice.
๐ธ
One evening, I thought about what it would be like to no longer be able to speak French. I ended up asking me this: is it even possible to forget your native language, if you donโt use it anymore?
I did some research and hereโs what I found.
๐๐ป
The fact of completely forgetting your native language is called ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป. A term exists, so forgetting your native language is technically possible. However, in which contexts?
CHILDREN
Young children can forget their native language, notably because their brain is still โflexibleโ and developing.
Adopted children, for example, often forget the language they spoke in the country they were born in. A friend of mine was adopted in South Korea by French parents when he was around 9. Today, he doesnโt speak or understand Korean.
This can also happen to children of emigrants. Having left their birth country for another one with their parents, they may end up โprioritizingโ the language they now need to use at school and in their everyday life. In this case, we talk about ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐๐ฎ๐น๐.
ADULTS
Among adults, ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป is rarer. True, when you have been living in a foreign country for a long, long time, you are more inclined to mix up your native and second language, and even make grammar mistakes. Forgetting your native tongue, though, is still unlikely.
Nevertheless, there have been cases where adults have forgotten their native language. Most of the time, this is triggered by ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐บ๐ฎ. In 2018, an article from BBC News Online explained that some German Jews who escaped Nazi Germany, fleeing to Great Britain or the United States, had been unable to speak German ever since. They experienced such traumatic events that they only spoke English and erased German from their memory.
ใฐ๏ธใฐ๏ธ
I canโt help but think about funny Xavier, LโAuberge espagnoleโs main French character. Having been injected some sedative, he starts dreaming and sees himself only being able to speak Spanish. His โNo entiendo el francรฉs. He olvidado mi lengua materna.โ is legendary.
As scary as it seems, letโs rest assured: normally, we shouldnโt be forgetting our native language any time soon!