A lingua franca also called a bridge language, or vehicular language, is a language systematically
used to make communication possible between persons not sharing a native language, in
particular when it is a third language, distinct from both native languages.
Lingua francas have arisen around the globe throughout human history, sometimes for commercial
reasons but also for diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging
information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities.
The term originates with one such language, Mediterranean Lingua Franca.
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 groups.
For example, English is a vernacular in the United Kingdom, but is used as a vehicular
language in the Philippines.
International auxiliary languages such as Esperanto have not had a high level of adoption
globally, so they cannot be described as global lingua francas, although they play this role
in various contexts.
Etymology The term "lingua franca", Italian for "Frankish
language", is from a particular example, Mediterranean Lingua Franca.
Lingua Franca was a mixed language composed mostly of Italian with a broad vocabulary
drawn from Old French, Greek, Arabic, Portuguese, Occitan and Spanish.
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 late Byzantine Period.
The Douglas Harper Etymology Dictionary states that the term lingua franca was first recorded
in English in the 1670s, although an even earlier example of the use of lingua franca
in English appeared in 1632, wherein it is also referred to as "Bastard Spanish."
As recently as the late 20th century, the use of the term was restricted by some to
mean only hybrid languages that are used as bridge languages, but today it refers to any
bridge language.
Examples
The use of lingua francas may be almost as old as language itself.
Certainly they have existed since antiquity.
Latin and Greek were the lingua francas of the Roman empire; Akkadian, and then Aramaic,
remained the common languages of a large part of Western Asia through several earlier empires.
Examples of lingua francas remain numerous, and exist on every continent.
The most obvious example as of the early 21st century is English.
There are many other lingua francas centralized on particular regions, such as Arabic, Chinese,
French, Hindi, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swahili.
In certain countries the lingua franca is also used as the national language; e.g.,
Urdu is the lingua franca of Pakistan as well as the national language.
See also
International auxiliary language Language contact
Mixed language Mutual intelligibility
Common Speech Universal language
World language Koiné language
List of languages by number of native speakers References
Further reading Hall, R.A.
Jr..
Pidgin and Creole Languages, Cornell University Press.
ISBN 0-8014-0173-9.
Heine, Bernd.
Status and Use of African Lingua Francas.
ISBN 3-8039-0033-6 Kahane, Henry Romanos.
The Lingua Franca in the Levant.
Melatti, Julio Cezar.
Índios do Brasil.
São Paulo: Hucitec Press, 48th edition Ostler, Nicholas.
Empires of the Word.
London: Harper ISBN 978-0-00-711871-7 External links
English - the universal language on the Internet?
Lingua franca del Mediterraneo o Sabir of professor Francesco Bruni.
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.