What defines a programming language?

Question

Recently I've starting a project I'm calling 'JIL' or JIL Interfacing Language, and it's to be a programming language of sorts. Now, I doubt it will ever be super-useful or versatile, but the aim of it is to be a step up from block programming, but a step down from complex languages like java, C, or C++. JIL stands for JIL Interfacing Language because it is both interpreted and parsed in java, and all of its keywords/methods will be interpreted and then executed in java. My question is would JIL count as a 'true' programming language, or is it a 'false' or 'secondary' programming language that is nothing more than a java application.

Answer 1

using wiki's definition as a rule of the thumb:

A programming language is a formal constructed language designed to communicate instructions to a machine

yours is formal because it can be parsed. if it also instructs machine what to do then congratulations - your first programming language :)