urlanguage

plural urlanguages · alternative ur-language

1. countableuncountablehuman sciencesA basic or original language; proto-language.

   Is there an ur-language? This question has been raised in a notoriously fallacious argument first promulgated by Fodor (1979).

   1997, George Wolf, Nigel Love, Linguistics Inside Out

   3 more examples

   It is the urlanguage that sets up the rules of syntax that determine the formal constructions every language must incorporate if it […] The urlanguage is also the ultimate authority that governs the inclusion of designator expressions in any context.

   1982, Jack Kaminsky, Essays in linguistic ontology

   Obviously we have here a further reason for exploring our relationship with our animal friends: it is a way of understanding the fundamentals of our own language, of discovering that ur-language we share with other parts of nature than […]

   2006, Frederick Turner, Natural Religion

   What innate ideas did he have? Did he know of God and Creation? What was his language—the urlanguage that gave rise to all the languages of the world, the language all men brought with them […]

   2010, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Wild Child: Stories