A lingua franca (or working language, bridge language, vehicular language) is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.
Characteristics
"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or structure of the language: though
pidgins and
creoles often function as lingua francas, many such languages are neither pidgins nor creoles.
Whereas a
vernacular language is used as a native language in a single speaker community, a
lingua franca goes beyond the boundaries of its original community, and is used as a second language for communication between communities. For example, English is a vernacular in the United Kingdom, but is used as a vehicular language (that is, a
lingua franca) in the Philippines.
International auxiliary languages such as Esperanto are generally intended by their designers to function as lingua francas, but they have historically had a relatively low level of adoption and use and therefore cannot be described as lingua francas in the functional sense.
Etymology
The original Lingua Franca was a mixed language composed mostly (80%) of Italian with a broad vocabulary drawn from Turkish, French, Spanish, Greek and Arabic. It was in use throughout the eastern Mediterranean as the language of commerce and diplomacy in and around the
Renaissance era. At that time, Italian speakers dominated seaborne commerce in the port cities of the
Ottoman empire.
Franca was the Italian word for
Frankish. Its usage in the term
lingua franca originated from its meaning in Arabic and Greek, dating from before the
Crusades and during the
Middle Ages, whereby all Western Europeans were called "Franks" or
Faranji in
Arabic and
Phrankoi in
Greek during the times of the late
Eastern Roman Empire. The term
lingua franca is first recorded in English in 1678.
Examples
Examples of lingua francas are numerous, and exist on every continent. The most obvious example today is English, which is the current lingua franca of international business, science, technology and aviation. There are many other lingua francas centralized on particular regions, such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.
The popularity of languages changes over time, and there are many lingua francas that are of historical importance. For example, French was the language of European diplomacy from the 17th century until the mid-20th century. Until the early 20th century, Classical Chinese served as both the written lingua franca and the diplomatic language in Far East Asia including China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, the Ryūkyū Kingdom, and Vietnam. Arabic became the "lingua franca" of the Arab/Islamic Empire (from CE 733 – 1492), which at a certain point spread from the borders of China and Northern India through Central Asia, Persia, Asia Minor, Middle East, North Africa all the way to Spain and Portugal in the west. In their modern forms, these languages are all still significant lingua francas today.
See also
Universal language
World language
Language contact
Mixed language
International English
Esperanto
International auxiliary language
List of languages by number of native speakers
References
Further reading
Heine, Bernd (1970). Status and Use of African Lingua Francas. ISBN 3-8039-0033-6
Kahane, Henry Romanos (1958). The Lingua Franca in the Levant.
R. A. Hall, Jr. (1966). Pidgin and Creole Languages, Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-0173-9.
MELATTI, Julio Cezar (1983). Índios do Brasil. São Paulo:Hucitec Press, 48th edition
External links
English - the universal language on the Internet?
Lingua franca del Mediterraneo o Sabir of professor Francesco Bruni (in Italian).
Sample texts from Juan del Encina, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Carlo Goldoni's L'Impresario da Smyrna, Diego de Haedo and other sources.
An introduction to the original Mediterranean Lingua Franca.
Category:Languages
Category:Interlinguistics
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![Estação da Luz, home of the Museum of the Portuguese Language, in São Paulo, Brazil. Portuguese and Spanish are the fastest-growing European languages (with the exception of English, being the world lingua franca)[citation needed], and, according to estimates by UNESCO, the Portuguese language has the highest potential for growth as an international language in southern Africa and South America. The Portuguese-speaking African countries are expected to have a combined population of 83 million by](http://web.archive.org./web/20110808050325im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/b4/f1/dcdde7c9f40865fb23f9a4a7ed40_thumb.jpg "Estação da Luz, home of the Museum of the Portuguese Language, in São Paulo, Brazil. Portuguese and Spanish are the fastest-growing European languages (with the exception of English, being the world lingua franca)[citation needed], and, according to estimates by UNESCO, the Portuguese language has the highest potential for growth as an international language in southern Africa and South America. The Portuguese-speaking African countries are expected to have a combined population of 83 million by")
![Manneken Pis is seen as a symbol of French and Dutch cohabitation in Brussels.[52]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110808050325im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/7d/3f/490a75b9d9e27e67d064980788cb_thumb.jpg "Manneken Pis is seen as a symbol of French and Dutch cohabitation in Brussels.[52]")
