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Matronly language? (6,6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

mother tongue

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'matronly language?' is the definition.
'mother tongue' can be an answer for 'language?' (mother tongue is a kind of language). I'm not certain of the 'matronly' bit.

'matronly language?' is the wordplay.
'matronly' becomes 'mother' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'language?' becomes 'tongue' (tongue can mean a language).
'mother'+'tongue'='MOTHER-TONGUE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for mother tongue that I've seen before include "Native language" , "Language used" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish News.
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