What does "i-language" mean?

Abbreviation of internal language: language as perceived and understood in the individual rather than as transmitted and shared in the world or community.

I-language

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Abbreviation of internal language: language as perceived and understood in the individual rather than as transmitted and shared in the world or community. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable

Etymology

Introduced by Noam Chomsky.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.