semilingual (adj./n.)

A term sometimes used in SOCIOLINGUISTICS and language teaching, referring to people who have ACQUIRED two or more LANGUAGES, but who lack a native level of proficiency in any of them. The situation is likely to arise with people who have moved between countries a great deal in their early years. Semilingualism has been little studied, and is controversial, as it suggests that there are people who do not have a true mother-tongue; however, many people do claim to be semilingual. The term is also used to describe people who have made significant progress, though not achieving complete fluency, in learning a language.