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xenolect

xenolect noun: a language variety that bears a superficial resemblance to another larger language, but which differs at a fundamental structural level.

Noun

xenolect (plural xenolects)

  1. A language variety that bears a superficial resemblance to another larger language, but which differs at a fundamental structural level.
    • The "other dialect" may not need a special term for it, since it is the structurally unmarked, frame-of-reference variety which may be taken as defining that which is "normal" in the xenolect as well. But were a term to be needed for the non-xenolectal dialect(s), an appropriate one might be...1989, Ofelia García, Ricardo Otheguy, English across Cultures. Cultures across English, →ISBN
    • For this reason she classifies Rinkebysvenska as "a xenolect, which relies not on radical restructuring, but on a small but symbolically significant amount of influence from immigrant language(s) to render it identifiably different from standard."2006, H. Julia Eksner, Ghetto Ideologies, Youth Identities and Stylized Turkish German, →ISBN, page 101

Examples of xenolect in a sentence

  • The "other dialect" may not need a special term for it, since it is the structurally unmarked, frame-of-reference variety which may be taken as defining that which is "normal" in the xenolect as well.1989, Ofelia García, Ricardo Otheguy, English across Cultures. Cultures across English, →ISBN:
  • As a xenolect develops, it becomes mimolect, that is, a variety whose external appearance resembles that of another (Stewart, 1989: 263-280).2009, Anna Maria D'Amore, Translating Contemporary Mexican Texts, →ISBN, page 110:

Forms of xenolect

pluralxenolects

Origin of xenolect

From xeno- + -lect.

Words formed from xenolect

Questions about xenolect

What does xenolect mean?
Xenolect means a language variety that bears a superficial resemblance to another larger language, but which differs at a fundamental structural level.
How do you use xenolect in a sentence?
The "other dialect" may not need a special term for it, since it is the structurally unmarked, frame-of-reference variety which may be taken as defining that which is "normal" in the xenolect as well.
What part of speech is xenolect?
Xenolect is a noun.
What is the plural of xenolect?
The plural of xenolect is xenolects.

Words near xenolect in the dictionary

  1. xenoinfections
  2. xenointoxication
  3. xenokidney
  4. xenokidneys
  5. xenolalia
  6. xenolect
  7. xenolectal
  8. xenolectic
  9. xenolecticity
  10. xenolects
  11. xenoline

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: xenolect (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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