A native language has a clear and unique grip on an individual. While it is possible to learn others, it is perhaps impossible to escape the unique issue of identity when we discuss our first language. After all, we do not choose the language taught to us by our family.

“What remains?” asks German journalist Günter Gaus of Hannah Arendt during a 1964 television interview. The transcript of this conversation is well known in English, and Arendt's famous answer is most often rendered as “What remains? Language remains.” However, what Arendt really says is “Was bleibt? Es bleibt die Muttersprache.” Muttersprache means mother tongue, or in the patriarchal Polish, “father tongue”. Italians say Madrelingua. In Ukrainian, it is рідна мова, or literally, native speech. It is a language we do not choose.