This paper reviews the current discussion concerning people’s right of giving up the mother tongue from angles of nature of the right, legal resource, rights and obligations, and implications for practices. The paper first reviews the definition of the mother tongue; second it discusses the notion of language right; and further it contents that giving up the mother tongue is also a kind of language right. The paper further discusses the questions of (1) whether individuals have the right of withdrawing from their ethnic community; (2) whether it is more beneficial to learn the majority language or language of minority group; (3) who is responsible for maintaining minority language, the government or the minority people; and (4) whether the right of giving up one’s mother tongue is a positive or a negative right. The paper proposes that giving up one’s mother tongue is a kind of negative right being derived from the right of choosing one’s language, and thus it is not necessary to be listed as a separate right. In term of practice, the author argues that the minority ethnic groups and their members should not be restricted in choosing their ethnic language as the mother tongue because of the preservation obligation, but they should be cautious when exercising the right of giving up the ethnic language.