Lingua franca

A lingua franca is any language widely used beyond the population of its native speakers. The de facto status of lingua franca is usually "awarded" by the masses to the language of the most influential nation(s) of the time. Any given language normally becomes a lingua franca primarily by being used for international commerce, but can be accepted in other cultural exchanges, especially diplomacy. Occasionally the term "lingua franca" is applied to a fully established formal language; thus formerly it was said that French was the lingua franca of diplomacy.

The term "lingua franca" was originally used by Arabs to name all Romance languages, and especially Italian (Arabs used to name Franks all peoples in Western Europe). Then, it meant a language with a Romance lexicon (most of words derived from Italian and Spanish) and a very simple grammar, that till the end of XIX century was used by mariners in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in Middle East and Northern Africa.

A related concept is that of a “vehicular language.” It is defined as a basic linguistic structure for proposed “international auxiliary languages,” for example, the use of an Indo-European language, or Indo-European itself, in the development of Esperanto. This is discussed in Eco, Umberto, “The Search for the Perfect Language,” Blackwell Publishers, 1995, p. 330 ff.

In Europe

Sabir

Originally "Lingua Franca" referred to a mix of mostly Italian with a broad vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic. This mixed language (pidgin, creole language) was used for communication throughout the medieval and early modern Middle East as a diplomatic language; the generic description "lingua franca" has since become common for any language used by speakers of different languages to communicate with one another.

Lingua Franca meaning "Frankish language" was an early language, also known including the Portuguese. When the Portuguese started exploring the seas of Africa, America, Asia and Oceania, they tried to communicate with the natives by mixing a Portuguese-influenced version of Lingua Franca with the local languages. When English or French ships came to compete with the Portuguese, the crew tried to learn this "broken Portuguese". Through a process of change the Lingua Franca and Portuguese wordstock was substituted by the languages of the people in contact.

Greek and Latin

During the time of the Roman Empire, the lingua franca was Koine Greek. During the Middle Ages, the lingua franca was Greek in the parts of Europe where the Byzantine Empire held hegemony, and Latin was primarily used in the rest of Europe.

French

French was the language of diplomacy in Europe from the 17th century until its recent replacement by English, and as a result is still the working language of international institutions and is seen on documents ranging from passports to airmail letters. For many years, until the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995, French and German were the only official working languages of the European Economic Community.

French was also the language used among the educated in cosmopolitan cities in North Africa such as Cairo, Egypt around the turn of the century until World War II. French is still a lingua franca in many West African countries (where it often enjoys official status), a remnant of France's colonial times. These African countries, together with several other countries throughout the world, are members of La Francophonie.

Spanish

Spanish replaced Latin as the language of diplomacy and (in some aspects) culture during the 16th and early 17th centuries, when it was replaced by French. Spanish was also used throughout portions of the former Spanish Empire, particularly in South America. Today, it is the lingua franca in Equatorial Guinea, along with French.

German

German served as a lingua franca in large portions of Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries in the sciences — particularly in physics, chemistry and sociology — as well as in business and politics. German was also spoken in much of Eastern Europe long after the end of World War II. In some academic disciplines, most notably philosophy and religious studies, a reading knowledge of German is still considered essential and required by many universities of their doctoral candidates. This is true of universities all over the world, not just those in Europe.

Polish

Polish was once a lingua franca in various regions of Central and Eastern Europe, mostly due to the political, cultural, scientific and military influence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although Russian language influence has somewhat decreased this popularity, Polish is still sometimes spoken or at least understood in western border areas of Ukraine and Belarus.

English

English is the current lingua franca of international business and air traffic control, and has displaced French as the lingua franca of diplomacy since World War II. It arguably was advanced by the role of English-speaking countries, in particular the United States, in the aftermath of the war.

The modern trend to use English outside of English-speaking countries has a number of sources. Ultimately, the use of English in a variety of locations across the globe is a consequence of the reach of the British Empire. But the establishment of English as an international lingua franca after World War II was mostly a result of the spread of English via cultural and technological exports from the United States. English is also regarded by some as the global lingua franca owing to the economic hegemony of most of the developed Western nations in world financial and business institutions. The de facto status of English as the lingua franca in these countries has carried over globally as a result.

A landmark recognition of the dominance of English in Europe came in 1995 when, on the accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden, English joined French and German as one of the working languages of the European Union. Many Europeans outside of the EU have also adopted English as their current lingua franca. For example, in Switzerland, which has three official languages (German, French, and Italian) plus one other national language, spoken by a relatively small minority (Romansch), English serves as a lingua franca with citizens and the relatively high foreign-born population (20% of Swiss residents are non-native; acquiring Swiss citizenship is a difficult process).

Outside Europe

In other regions of the world, other languages perform the function of a lingua franca.

Arabic

Arabic serves as a lingua franca for Muslims.

Aramaic

The Aramaic, native language of the Arameans, became the lingua franca of the Assyrian Empire and the western provinces of the Persian Empire, mainly because of its simple, alphabetic writing system, more useful in administration than cuneiform. Aramaic was still used as lingua franca by the native people at the time of Jesus Christ.

Bislama

Bislama is used in the Pacific Islands.

Chinese

Classical Chinese previously served as both a written lingua franca and diplomatic language in Far East Asia, used by China, Korea, Japan, the Ryukyus, and Vietnam in interstate communications. In the early 20th century Classical Chinese in China was replaced by modern written Standard Chinese. Currently, among most Chinese-speaking communities, Standard Mandarin serves the function of providing a common spoken language between speakers of different and mutually unintelligible Chinese spoken languages - not to mention between the Han people and other ethnic groups in China.

Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu)

Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu, is commonly spoken in India and Pakistan. It encompasses two standardized registers in the form of the official languages of Hindi and Urdu, as well as several nonstandard dialects. Hindi is the official language and lingua franca of India and Urdu is the official language and lingua franca of Pakistan.

Also see Hindustani

Italian

Italian was the lingua franca of Italian colonies in Africa and it is still used in business by some populations of Ethiopia.

Malay

Malay is used as a lingua franca in the Malay Archipelago.

Persian

Persian serves as a lingua franca for Iranians.

Portuguese

Portuguese served as lingua franca in Africa and Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Russian

Russian is still in use in areas of northwestern Asia like Kyrgyzstan formerly part of the Soviet Union, or adjoining it.

Swahili

Swahili is used throughout large parts of East Africa as a lingua franca, despite being the mother tongue of a relatively small ethnic group on the East African coast and nearby islands in the Indian Ocean. At least as early as the late eighteenth century, Swahili was used along trading and slave routes that extended west across Lake Tanganyika and into the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. Swahili rose in prominence throughout the colonial era, and has become the predominant African language of Tanzania and Kenya. Some contemporary members of non-Swahili ethnic groups speak Swahili more often than their mother tongues, and many choose to raise their children with Swahili as their first language, leading to the possibility that several smaller East African languages will fade as Swahili transitions from being a regional lingua franca to a regional first language.

Thai

Thai is widely used in and around Thailand.

Tupi

The now-extinct language of Old Tupi served as the lingua franca of Brazil between speakers of the various indigenous languages. It was also spoken by the majority of white settlers during the early colonial period but was suppressed from the mid-eighteenth century.

Zulu

South Africa has eleven official languages, however the mutual intelligibility of many Nguni languages (Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi and Ndebele) has meant that Zulu is increasingly becoming a lingua franca throughout Eastern South Africa, including the major cities of Durban and Johannesburg. Zulu is the first language of ten million people, but is spoken as a second language by over 25 million in the region and is now the most commonly understood language in the country.

Pidgin

Various pidgin languages have been used in many locations and times as a common trade speech. Some linguists speculate that the creation of pidgins is the major source for creation of new languages.

References

Heine, Bernd (1970). Status and Use of African Lingua Francas. ISBN 3803900336
Kahane, Henry Romanos (1958). The Lingua Franca in the Levant.
R. A. Hall, Jr. (1966). Pidgin and Creole Languages, Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801401739.

Languages

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