Description

MMTONGUE reports the mother tongue of the respondent's mother, if the respondent's mother was foreign-born. Mother tongue means the primary language the person spoke at home in the home country (not in the United States).

For both years, the mother tongues of the respondents' foreign-born fathers are reported in FMTONGUE. Further mother tongue and/or language information is available in the variables MTONGUE (respondent's own mother tongue -- 1910 (U.S. Census), 1920 (U.S. and Puerto Rican Censuses), 1940, 1960, and 1970) and LANGUAGE (Language spoken -- 1910 (U.S. and Puerto Rican Censuses), 1980, 1990, 2000, and the ACS). All the language variables (MTONGUE, MMTONGUE, FMTONGUE, and LANGUAGE) follow the same IPUMS coding scheme, and an overview is provided in MTONGUE.

Comparability

This variable is basically comparable across years and samples.

In 1910, some enumerators entered countries instead of mother tongues. In cases where the country entered was home to only one major language, the 1910 sample creators entered that language as the mother's mother tongue. In other cases, they checked the person's response for "language spoken." If this was a non-English language and was known to be spoken in the country entered under mother's mother tongue, mother's mother tongue was coded the same as "language spoken." Otherwise, mother's mother tongue was coded "unknown."

In 1920, unlike 1910, this question was not asked of people whose mothers were born in the outlying territories of the United States (Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa, the Panama Canal Zone, and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

Universe

Availability

• 2023: --
• 2022: --
• 2021: --
• 2020: --
• 2019: --
• 2018: --
• 2017: --
• 2016: --
• 2015: --
• 2014: --
• 2013: --
• 2012: --
• 2011: --
• 2010: --
• 2009: --
• 2008: --
• 2007: --
• 2006: --
• 2005: --
• 2004: --
• 2003: --
• 2002: --
• 2001: --
• 2000: --
• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1960: --
• 1950: --
• 1940: --
• 1930: --
• 1920: 1%
• 1910: 1%; 1.4% ovrsmp
• 1900: --
• 1880: --
• 1870: --
• 1860: --
• 1850: --

• 2023: --
• 2022: --
• 2021: --
• 2020: --
• 2019: --
• 2018: --
• 2017: --
• 2016: --
• 2015: --
• 2014: --
• 2013: --
• 2012: --
• 2011: --
• 2010: --
• 2009: --
• 2008: --
• 2007: --
• 2006: --
• 2005: --
• 2000: --
• 1990: --
• 1980: --
• 1970: --
• 1930: --
• 1920: All samples
• 1910: --

Flags

Editing Procedure

There is no editing procedure available for this variable.