languoid

Blend of language +‎ -oid, coined 2006[1].

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæŋɡwɔɪd/

languoid (plural languoids)

1. (linguistics) A language, variety of a language, or group of languages.
   • 2015, Keith Allan, The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics, Routledge →ISBN, page 391

     And more recently, the terms languoid and doculect have been proposed (Cysouw and Good 2013) where languoid is any 'language-like object' and doculect is 'a linguistic variety as it is documented in a given resource' (p. 342). This term is ...

This term does not specify whether the referent is a dialect of another language, a language of its own (compare lect and also idiom), a dialect cluster, a small family of closely related languages, or sprachbund or historical group of similar but unrelated languages. It is convenient for ambiguous cases and situations where inadequate documentation is available to make a judgement.

• anguloid