Indigenous languages: Visualization tool

Additional information

Definitions

Knowledge of an Indigenous language

Refers to whether the person can conduct a conversation in an Indigenous language. For a child who has not yet learned to speak, this includes languages that the child is learning to speak at home.

Mother tongue

Refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the person at the time the data was collected. If the person no longer understands the first language learned, the mother tongue is the second language learned. For a person who learned more than one language at the same time in early childhood, the mother tongue is the language this person spoke most often at home before starting school. The person has more than one mother tongue only if they learned these languages at the same time, and still understands them. For a child who has not yet learned to speak, the mother tongue is the language spoken most often to this child at home. A child who has not yet learned to speak has more than one mother tongue only if these languages are spoken to them equally often so that the child learns these languages at the same time.

Learned as second language

The term "second language" includes any Indigenous language learned except for the respondent's mother tongue. Some respondents may have learned their Indigenous language as a third or fourth language.

Home language

Refers to all languages that the person speaks at home on a regular basis at the time of data collection.

Silent speakers

Refers to those who can no longer conduct a conversation in their mother tongue, but still understand it.

Active speakers

Refers to those who can still conduct a conversation in their mother tongue.