Meanings
- not comparableWriting in a language other than one's native language.
The role of German as medium for exophonic writers has actually been growing strongly in recent years.
2011, David Bellos, chapter 19, in Is that a Fish in Your Ear?2 more examples
The adopted language is typically acquired as an adult; exophonic writers are not bilingual in the sense that they grew up speaking two languages, and indeed do not necessarily achieve the type of spoken fluency associated with the term "bilingualism."
2013, Yoko Tawada, Yoko Tawada's Portrait of a TongueHe became a temporary exophonic writer, composing the part of his first novel in a language other than his mother tongue, […]
2016, Patricia Haseltine, Sheng-mei Ma, Doing English in Asia: Global Literature and Culture, page 21
Origin
Cite this entry
exophonic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exophonic
“exophonic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exophonic. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “exophonic,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exophonic.
Source: exophonic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.