interlanguage

Noun

interlanguage (plural interlanguages)

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

   Synonyms:

   koine, lingua franca

3. A pidgin or creole