toy language

n. A language useful for instructional purposes or as a proof-of-concept for
some aspect of computer-science theory, but inadequate for general-purpose
programming. Bad Things can result when a toy language is promoted as a
general purpose solution for programming (see bondage-and-discipline
language ); the classic example is Pascal. Several moderately well-known
formalisms for conceptual tasks such as programming Turing machines also
qualify as toy languages in a less negative sense. See also MFTL.
