native-speaker (n.)

A term used in LINGUISTICS to refer to someone for whom a particular LANGUAGE is a first language or mother-tongue. The implication is that this native language, having been acquired naturally during childhood, is the one about which a speaker will have the most reliable INTUITIONS, and whose judgements about the way the language is used can therefore be trusted. In investigating a language, accordingly, one is wise to try to obtain information from native-speaking informants, rather than from those who may have learned it as a SECOND or foreign language (even if they are highly proficient). Many people do, however, develop a ‘native-like’ command of a foreign language, and in bilingualism one has the case of someone who has a native command of two languages. The term has become a sensitive one in those parts of the world where native has developed demeaning connotations.