sesquilingual

Adjective

sesquilingual (not comparable)

1. (rare) Pertaining to one language, plus a second in a limited capacity, degree, or content.
   • Typically, it is believed that this sesquilingual discourse is due to the absence of suitable terms in the inferior language.1976, Herbert Pilch, Empirical Linguistics, Munich: Francke, published 1976, page 152
   • Ireland's sesquilingual situation is thus the inverse of the 'normal' European situation, where English is the prestige language and the native language of lower prestige.2007 Hildegard L.C. Tristram, "On the 'Celticity' of Irish Newspapers - A Research Report," in The Celtic Languages in Contact: Papers from the Workshop Within the Framework of the XIII International...
2. (rare) Able to communicate fluently in one language, but only to a degree in another.
   • Being already sesquilingual, the Hong Kong Chinese are therefore quite receptive to the teaching of another language.1978, Joseph Yam Ting Woo, “Bilingualism in Hong Kong: The Orient Anglicized”, in Bilingual Research Journal, volume 2, number 2
   • 'Sesquilingual' is not a mythical animal like the native speaker or foreign learner, but a newfangled term for someone who is good in one language, say English, and only half as...1993 Jan, Thomas M. Paikeday, “Who needs IPA?”, in English Today, volume 9, number 1, pages 38–42