Interlanguage

Quick meaning: Interlanguage is a noun meaning A language generated by a student of a foreign language that incorporates aspects of their native language and the target language.

Meaning

A language generated by a student of a foreign language that incorporates aspects of their native language and the target language.

More Meanings

1. A lingua franca, a common language used by speakers of different languages
2. A pidgin or creole

Example Sentences

Latin used to be the European interlanguage. Currently English widely serves this purpose.

Trasyanka and Surzhyk are interlanguages: a Belarusian–Russian and a Ukrainian–Russian mixed language.

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.

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.

Word Forms

• interlanguages

Synonyms for interlanguage

Depending on context, synonyms include koine, interlingua.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include interlingua, pragmatics, xenization, interference, substrate, substitution.

Related Dictionary Tools