community language

noun

An unofficial language spoken by a minority of people.

“Commonly spoken community languages in Australia include Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic, Greek, Italian, indigenous languages, and so on.”

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Meanings

community language1

nouncommunity language (plural community languages)

plural community languages

  1. human sciencesAn unofficial language spoken by a minority of people.

    Commonly spoken community languages in Australia include Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic, Greek, Italian, indigenous languages, and so on.

  2. human sciencesAn unofficial language spoken as a local lingua franca among people of diverse ethno-linguistic backgrounds.
    1 more example

    1985 UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa. 1985. African community languages and their use in literacy and education : a regional survey. Dakar : UNESCO. Such languages, which serve the purposes of general communication over fairly wide areas within countries, are what are referred to as the community languages of Africa.

Community language2

nounCommunity language (plural Community languages)

plural Community languages

  1. Any of the official languages of the European Union.

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 社團語言 /社团语言, 社區語言 /社区语言
  • 社團語言 /社团语言 (shètuán yǔyán)language spoken by a minority of people
  • 社區語言 /社区语言 (shèqū yǔyán)language spoken by a minority of people
  • 團體語言 /团体语言 (tuántǐ yǔyán)language spoken by a minority of people
  • 歐盟官方語言 /欧盟官方语言 (Ōuméng guānfāng yǔyán)official language of the EU
Finnish vähemmistökieli, yhteisökieli
  • vähemmistökielilanguage spoken by a minority of people
  • yhteisökieliofficial language of the EU
French langue officielle de l'Union européenne
  • langue officielle de l'Union européenneofficial language of the EU
Russian язы́к общи́ны
  • язы́к общи́ны (jazýk obščíny)language spoken by a minority of people
Cite this entry
APA

community language. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/community%20language

MLA

“community language.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/community%20language. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “community language,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/community%20language.

Source: community language on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.