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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

interlanguage en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ɪnˈtɜɹˈlæŋɡwɪd͡ʒ/ (US)
  • (US) audio

Etymology

From inter- + language. In the language acquisition sense introduced by Larry Selinker in 1972.

Meanings

  1. A language generated by a student of a foreign language that incorporates aspects of their native language and the target language.
    • Trasyanka and Surzhyk are interlanguages: a Belarusian–Russian and a Ukrainian–Russian mixed language.
    • The learner's selection from his/her store of interlanguage rules is not haphazard but systematic and predictable, based as it is on his/her existing rule system in much the same way as the native speaker bases his/her speech on the internalized knowledge of the L1 system. 2011, Anna Trosborg, Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints, and Apologies, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 54:
  2. A lingua franca, a common language used by speakers of different languages
    • As [David] Bellos points out, those born as English speakers are now a minority of English speakers: most speak it as a second language. English is the world’s biggest interlanguage. 2011 October 28, Adam Thirlwell, “The Joyful Side of Translation”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020:
    • Latin used to be the European interlanguage. Currently English widely serves this purpose.
  3. A pidgin or creole

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
interlanguages Number=Plur lexicographic

Relateds

interlinguist

Synonyms

lingua franca · koine

Translations (14)

de Lernervarietät (mixed language) · pl interjęzyk (mixed language) · de Lernersprache (mixed language) · ru интер-язы́к (mixed language) · de Interimssprache (mixed language) · ja 中間言語 (mixed language) · cmn 中介語 /中介语 (mixed language) · fr interlangue (mixed language) · hi अन्तरभाषा (mixed language) · cmn 中間語言 /中间语言 (mixed language) · fi sekakieli (mixed language) · de Zwischensprache (mixed language) · th ภาษาในระหว่าง (mixed language) · ga idirtheanga (mixed language)

wikipedia: Larry Selinker