If you're curious to know what a lingua franca is, when it is used and how it appeared, then this article will help you answer these questions!
DEFINITION
Lingua franca is a language that is spoken by people whose native languages are not the same. Lingua francas, which can be also called as bridge/link/common/trade languages, help people from different countries communicate with each other and understand one another. The definition Lingua Franca itself comes from Italian - language and Frankish. Why exactly Frankish and why the term derives from Italian? Find it out in the following paragraph!
HISTORY
The term lingua franca emerged in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages when traders used a pidgin language (a language with a simplified grammar that let people with different native languages understand each other better) based on Italian. This Mediterranean Lingua Franca was used as a trade language and as a language of commerce from the Middle Ages up to the 18th century.
The word Frankish in the term derives from the so-called Franks. Franks used to mean "Western Europeans", that's why "lingua franca" literally means "language of the Francs".
EXAMPLES
One of the earliest examples of lingua francas is Latin that was the lingua franca of European scholars until the 18th century.
Nowadays, there are still many examples of lingua francas. English, being of the most important languages in the world, is one of them. It is used by the international air traffic control as a common language. Moreover, English is used in other spheres of life by non-native English speakers whose native mother tongues are different in all over the world.
Also, Spanish is considered a lingua franca in the territories of the Spanish Empire and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (other ones are Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Russian).
What lingua francas do you know? Share your knowledge in the comments!
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