The Bilingual Glossary:


Here are some commonly used terms explained so that new members or outsiders don't feel confused by abbreviations used in discussing bilingual topics:

ml@h, also mL@H :
Minority language at home. Using the minority language, in other words, the language not spoken in the community, at home to create a bilingual environment for the children.

OPOL:
One Person, One Language. Each parent or each person involved with the child (grandparents, child minders etc.) uses one language when speaking to the children, to create a bi- (or multi-) -lingual environment for the children.  Mostly this will be the native language of the parent, but  there are also parents who choose to speak in a language that is not their native tongue with their children.

BPBL:
This is a newly invented term by one of the listmembers: Koen de Troy.  It means "Both Parents speaking Both Languages". There are families which, for example, use one language on certain days of the week and another language for the rest of the week.

m=X, M=Y:
The lowercase m means minority language, the uppercase means the majority (community) language.  So "m=English, M=Norwegian" means the person in question is part of a family
that uses English, living in a Norwegian language environment. It doesn't say whether that person is himself/herself a native English speaker or not, nor does it tell us what sort of bilingual pattern the family uses. Many list members use this code in their signatures,
and everyone is encouraged to do so.
 

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