macrolanguage
noun/ˈmækɹəʊˌlæŋɡwɪdʒ/
Etymology From macro- + language.
Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A "language" by common usage, which is in fact a dialect continuum consisting of widely varying varieties that may be distinct languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility.
- The Indo-Aryan languages or macrolanguages of the plains merge into each other, being on the local level made up of enormous dialect continua (e.g. PANJABI-HINDI-BIHARI-RAJASTHANI-PAHARI). ¶ These fluid ‘macrolanguages’ (indicated by capital letters, e.g. HINDI) may have “dialects” which are mutually unintelligible and hard to classify.1996, Bertil Tikkanen, "Languages of interethnic communication on the Indian Subcontinent (excluding Nepal)", in Stephen Adolphe Wurm et al. (editors), Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Volume II.1, Walter de Gruyter, page 787
Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A group of mutually intelligible speech varieties that have no traditional name in common, and which may be considered distinct languages by their speakers.
- A linguist working with the criterion of mutual intelligibility would recognize six languages in central and western Victoria, most of them covering large areas. These widespread languages would not have been recognized as languages by the speakers themselves and they have no native name. The largest macrolanguage covers most of western Victoria north of Ballarat and Hamilton.1993, La Trobe working papers in linguistics, volumes 6-8, page 161:
A book-keeping device where – when a language as defined under the ISO 639-2 standard developed by the US Library of Congress, for the purpose of encoding the languages that published books are written in, does not correspond to a single language under the ISO 639-3 standard developed by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, for the purpose of listing all the world's languages in their publication Ethnologue – the ISO 639-2 language is assigned an ISO 639-3 code as a "macrolanguage".
International standards
- Some existing code elements in ISO 639-2, and the corresponding code elements in ISO 639-1, are designated in those parts of ISO 639 as individual language code elements, yet are in a one-to-many relationship with individual language code elements in [ISO 639-3]. For purposes of [ISO 639-3], they are considered to be macrolanguage code elements.(no date), ISO 639-3, Relationship between ISO 639-3 and the other parts of ISO 639
- Modern Arabic is classified [by the ISO] as a macrolanguage with 27 sub-languages spoken throughout the Arab world.2007, Jose A. Fadul (general editor), Encyclopedia Rizaliana: Student Edition, Lulu.com, page 6
2 more examples
- For this reason, the Ethnologue (2009) recognizes Chinese in their list of languages of China not as a language, but as a macrolanguage, i.e. multiple, closely related individual languages that are deemed in some usage contexts to be a […]2014, Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen, Andy Hancock, Learning Chinese in Diasporic Communities: Many pathways to being Chinese, John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 100:
- For languages that are considered to be part of macrolanguages in ISO 639-3, use the most specific code possible. […] In any situation, if you are not able to identify the appropriate specific language code, use the macrolanguage code.2023 January 12 [2022 November 22], “Guidelines for the use of ISO 639-3 language codes in MARC records”, in Library of Congress, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2025, pages 3, 4: