mother tongue

Why do we call the first language we learn as babies our mother tongue? Our first language, native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period - that ideal time window in our brain development.

"There is a spirit or an originating genius belonging to each word." ~ Louise Erdrich. 

clouds over Negros Island

There is power in words - the older these words, the more energy they contain. No wonder we are enriched by our ancestral tongue - the mother's milk of our native language. 

learning the language of birds

Long before Ransom Riggs of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children wrote the fifth novel in this collection, also titled The Conference of the Birds, there was another older and unrelated work created. 

Attar's work translated

The Conference of the Birds or Speech of the Birds (Persian: منطق الطیر‎, Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr, also known as مقامات الطیور Maqāmāt-uṭ-Ṭuyūr; 1177) is a Persian poem by Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar, commonly known as Attar of Nishapur.