Le mie cinque lingue straniere preferite

What does “lingua del cuore” mean in Italian?

La lingua del cuore, “the language of the heart,” is the one you feel in rather than merely speak. Often it’s your mother tongue — but not always. In the clip a native Italian calls German “la mia lingua del cuore,” the language he loves most, set against la lingua dell’intelletto, the language of the intellect. The phrase lets you separate the language you reason in from the one you love in — a distinction every language learner eventually feels.

The idea is old: Herder wrote of pouring one’s heart into a language, and it underlies Mandela’s line that speaking to someone in their own tongue “reaches the heart.” Pair it with lingua madre (mother tongue) and lingua matrigna (a chilly “stepmother tongue”) to talk richly about which languages live where inside you.