Word.ws English Dictionary

language island

language island noun: an enclave where a language is physically isolated from similar languages.

Noun

language island (plural language islands)

  1. An enclave where a language is physically isolated from similar languages.

Forms of language island

plurallanguage islands

Origin of language island

Calque of German Sprachinsel.

Questions about language island

What does language island mean?
Language island means an enclave where a language is physically isolated from similar languages.
What part of speech is language island?
Language island is a noun.
What is the plural of language island?
The plural of language island is language islands.

Words near language island in the dictionary

  1. language extinctions
  2. language families
  3. language family
  4. language game
  5. language games
  6. language island
  7. language islands
  8. language isolate
  9. language isolates
  10. language lab
  11. language laboratories

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: language island (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “language island.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/language_island. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.