macrolanguage

macrolanguage

See also: macro language

English

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

macro +‎ language

Noun

macrolanguage (plural macrolanguages)

1. (computing) Alternative spelling of macro language (“system for defining and processing macros”)
   • 2006, G. Brent Hall and Michael G. Leahy, "Internet-Based Spacial Decision Support Using Open Source Tools", Chapter XIII of Shivanand Balram and Suzana Dragićević, Collaborative Geographic Information Systems, Idea Group Inc., →ISBN, page 238:

     Much of the emphasis in spatial decision-support research continues to focus on developing tools, typically using macrolanguage scripting exclusively or scripting linked to compilable programming and commercial geographic information system software, such as workstation Arc/Info and desktop ArcGIS.

Usage notes

• This is more commonly written as two words: macro language.

Etymology 2

From macro- +‎ language.

Noun

macrolanguage (plural macrolanguages)

1. (linguistics) A language consisting of widely varying dialects.
   • 1993, in La Trobe working papers in linguistics, volumes 6-8, page 161:

     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.

   • 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, →ISBN, page 787:

     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.

   • 2007, Jose A. Fadul (general editor), Encyclopedia Rizaliana: Student Edition, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 6:

     Modern Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage with 27 sub-languages spoken throughout the Arab world.

   • 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 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 […]

2. (linguistics) A group of mutually intelligible speech varieties that are sometimes considered distinct languages.

Further reading

• ISO 639 macrolanguage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia