exonorm

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noun

A standard language forged by non-native speakers.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounexonorm (plural exonorms)

plural exonorms

  1. human sciencesA standard language forged by non-native speakers.

    The advantage in being able to do this lies in the creation and maintenance of an endonorm rather than blindly insisting on an exonorm.

    1997, Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, English in Ghana, page 32
    2 more examples

    And for Fijian - to maintain the Old High Fijian exonorm, which has been the variety most frequently seen in print and uttered by officialdom, or to build on the indigenous Standard Fijian.

    1984, George Bertram Milner, David George Arms, Paul A. Geraghty, Duivosavosa: Fiji's languages, their use and their future, page 59

    If native or primary anglophones living in Israel travel to an English-speaking country or if they are talking or writing to anglophones unfamiliar with English as used here, they must revert to an exonorm, something which is not always easy.

    1989, David L. Gold, Jewish Linguistic Studies, page 72

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

“exonorm.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exonorm. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “exonorm,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exonorm.

Source: exonorm on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.