User:Joeystanley/Semilingualism

Semilingualism or ""distractive bilingualism"" is a form of bilingualism in which a speaker does not have native-like control of any language. The term can sometimes be offensive.

One instance of a semilingual community is Northeastern Peru among the Yagua community. Some young women have been culturally assimilated into mainstream Peruvian culture and therefore speak neither Yagua nor Spanish with full, native fluency. They are sometimes spoken to in Yagua, but respond in rudimentary Spanish. They form a separate group from other members of the community who are 1) women who speak Yagua fluently with some Spanish due to their being culturally assimilated later, 2) monolingual Yagua women, 3) men, who all speak Yagua with varying degrees of Spanish.

From Multilingualism:

There is also a phenomenon known as distractive bilingualism or semilingualism. When acquisition of the first language is interrupted and insufficient or unstructured language input follows from the second language, as sometimes happens with immigrant children, the speaker can end up with two languages both mastered below the monolingual standard.[citation needed] Literacy plays an important role in the development of language in these immigrant children.[citation needed] Those who were literate in their first language before arriving, and who have support to maintain that literacy, are at the very least able to maintain and master their first language.[citation needed]

Here are two sources from Languages of the Philippines