“Mother tongue” is narrowly defined as the first language spoken in early childhood at home ( UN and Eurostat 2006). They are used as interchangeable terms, even by the Ukrainian authorities, although their meaning is not necessarily the same. However, “native language” is often translated into English as “mother tongue”. This seems to be confirmed by public surveys in Ukraine: “34% of respondents understand the term ‘native’ as referring to the language in which they think and talk freely for 32% of those surveyed it refers to the language of the nation they belong to for 24% it is the language of their parents and for 9% it is the language they use most often” ( Olszański 2012, 14-15). The latter was more confusing because during the Soviet times it came to mean the language of one’s nationality as much as linguistic practice ( Kulyk 2011). The former category referred to “ethnic origin”, equated in parentheses with “nationality”, “ethnicity” and “ethnic group” ( Arel 2002). The census questionnaire enquired about “nationality/ethnic origin” and “native language” in line with the methodology of censuses undertaken during the time of the Soviet Union. The fuzzy concepts of “nationality” and “native language” in the 2001 census
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