n. — Ethnicities, Administration
a language that relates to one's family's ethnic background that is not an official language or an Aboriginal language; an immigrant language.
Type: 1. Origin — Although the concept is relevant in other settings, the term heritage language seems to originate in Canada. Alternatives include community language, ethnic language or immigrant language, among other terms, which have been used in other English-dominant settings. The term heritage language is not used on the Canadian census, where home language is used, though it it occurs in official publications (see Statistics Canada reference) and in the educational sector (see Cummins 1992).
See COD-2, s.v. "heritage language", which is marked "Cdn".