What's the proper term for this?

[robynbunny]

Hello,

I am writing a proposal of research on loanword phonology in diaspora communities which are surrounded by a larger community (i.e. community of an ethnic minority who speak their own language but being surrounded by a dominant language spoken in the larger community that speaks English or French, etc.). I am having a hard time in choosing the proper term to refer the two languages. Should the latter be called "dominant language"? "Host language"? Or what is the professional way to term it? And what about the former (language spoken in the ethnic communities)?

Thank you very much for answering!

RobynBunny

[freknu]

Isn't majority and minority language simple and descriptive enough?

[MalFet]

The terms substratum and superstratum are sometimes used, though not without criticism. Your terminology should really be determined by the sociolinguistic circumstances. If you're trying to remain agnostic about that, is there a reason you want to avoid just calling the languages by their names?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratum_(linguistics)