dominant language
Most spoken dialect
A dominant language is the language that holds greater power, prestige, or prevalence in a particular context.
In multilingual societies, the dominant language typically controls government, education, and media: English is the dominant language in American public schools.
For individuals, it's the language they're most proficient in or use most often, which may differ from their native tongue: Spanish was her first language, but English became dominant after years abroad.
- mother tongueLanguage acquired from birth
- officialAuthority-sanctioned person or status
- majorityOver half of total
- hegemonyDominant group's control
- colonialOf occupied territories
prestige · native · fluent · minority · suppress · impose · power · dialect · English · global · cultural · assimilate · spoken · widespread · primary · prevailing · mainstream · authority
- Multilingualismbilingualism, code-switching, polyglot, mother tongue, native tongue
- colonial languagescolonial Spanish
- sociolinguisticssociolinguistics, diglossia, bilingualism, dialects, code-switching
- languagesEnglish, Arabic, Chinese, German, French
- lingua francasEnglish, French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin
- language losscritically endangered
dominant languageminority language
Speech spoken by few
heritage language · indigenous language · regional language · vernacular · substrate language
dominant languageendangered language
Speech risking complete extinction
dying language · extinct language · minority language · rare language · language isolate
dominant, dominance, dominate, dominated, dominating, domination, domineer, domineering, dominion