link language

Noun

link language (plural link languages)

1. A common language linking various people groups or ethnicities, where the adopted language is not a native language of any of the speakers using it; a lingua franca.
   • [...] 'Adoption of [a second] language [in our case Latin] . . . generally leads to changes in the adopted link language, or even in the native language of the speaker, and thus can have profound effects on linguistic change.'2003, James Noel Adams, Bilingualism and the Latin Language
   • A term that covers all of this range is link language. Link languages and related phenomena are of interest to students of language change because they often require the adoption of another language, generally a second, but perhaps even a third.2009, Hans Henrich Hock, Brian D. Joseph, Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship