Linguonym

Linguonym (from Latin: lingua / language, and Greek: ὄνομα / name), also known as glossonym (from Ancient Greek: γλῶσσα / language) or glottonym (from Attic Greek: γλῶττα / language), is a linguistic term that designates a proper name of an individual language, or a language family. The study of language names is known as linguonymy (glossonymy, glottonymy), or linguonymics (glossonymics, glottonymics). As a distinctive linguistic discipline, linguonymic studies are closely related to some other onomastic disciplines, particularly those that are focused on the study of ethnonyms (names of ethnic groups) and choronyms (names of regions and countries). In that context, the field is related to ethnolinguistic and sociolinguistic studies. Various questions related to the study of formation and use of language names are also relevant for several other disciplines within social sciences and humanities.

The term linguonym was introduced to the linguistic terminology in the second half of the 20th century, first in 1973, and again in 1977, while further attempts to define the field were made in 1979. Three synonymic terms (linguonym, glossonym, glottonym) gradually came into use, primarily among linguists and other scholars, but the field of linguonymic studies itself is still considered to be in its formative stages.