their native + language | tongue

‘your native language or tongue’ is B2 in the English Vocabulary Profile with the meaning: ‘the first language you learn.’  For example:

Now, they speak English but it‘s not their native language

theyd rather not speak English.

TED


A collocate search for _APPGE native language|tongue in COCA:

1 LANGUAGE 566
2 THEIR 412

3 TONGUE 300
4 ENGLISH 80
5 SPEAK 53
6 SPEAKING 28
7 SPANISH 23
8 SPOKE 20
9 SPEAKS 16
10 LEARN 11