multilingual (adj./n.)

A term used in SOCIOLINGUISTICS to refer (as an adjective) to a SPEECH community which makes use of two or more LANGUAGES, and then (as an adjective or noun) to the individual speakers who have this ability; it contrasts with monolingual. Multilingualism (or plurilingualism) in this sense may subsume bilingualism, but it is often contrasted with it (i.e. a community or individual in command of more than two languages). A further distinction is sometimes made between a multilingualism which is internal to a speech community (i.e. for routine domestic communicative purposes), and one which is external to it (i.e. an additional language being used to facilitate communication with other nations, as in the use of a LINGUA FRANCA). Sociolinguistic studies have emphasized both the frequency and complexity of the phenomenon: on the one hand, there are very few speech communities which are totally monolingual (because of the existence of linguistic minority groups within their boundaries); on the other hand, the multilingual abilities demonstrated are of several levels of proficiency, and raise different kinds of political, educational and social problems, depending on the numbers, social standing and national feeling of the groups concerned.