Literal question
What is the respondent's mother tongue?
By mother tongue we mean the language the respondent learned first, the language that the respondent expressed her/himself fully in, or voluntarily would identify with.
Question pretext
As described in the consent form, [respondent's name] was selected to be part of this study, but may find it difficult to complete the interview. The health and well-being of people like [respondent's name] is important for this research and this is why we want to ask the following questions. I will be asking you a number of questions about the health and well being of the respondent.
Question post text
1 Assamee
2 Bengali
3 English
4 Gujarati
5 Hindi
6 Kannada
7 Kashmiri
8 Konkani
9 Malayam
10 Manipuri
11 Marathi
12 Nepali
13 Oriya
14 Punjabi
15 Sindhi
16 Tamil
17 Telugu
18 Urdu
87 Other, specify: