Alingua franca (/ˌlɪŋɡwəˈfræŋkə/;lit.'Frankish tongue'; for plurals see§ Usage notes), also known as abridge language,common language,trade language,auxiliary language,link language orlanguage of wider communication (LWC), is alanguage systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share anative language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages.[1]
Linguae francae have developed around the world throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages" facilitated trade), but also for cultural, religious, diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities.[2][3] The term is taken from the medievalMediterranean Lingua Franca, aRomance-basedpidgin language used especially by traders in theMediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th centuries.[4] Aworld language—a language spoken internationally and by many people—is a language that may function as a global lingua franca.[5]
Trade languages of the world in 1908 fromThe Harmsworth Atlas and Gazetteer
Any language regularly used for communication between people who do not share a native language is a lingua franca.[6] Lingua franca is a functional term, independent of any linguistic history or language structure.[7]
Pidgins are therefore lingua francas;creoles and arguablymixed languages may similarly be used for communication between language groups. But lingua franca is equally applicable to a non-creole language native to one nation (often a colonial power) learned as asecond language and used for communication between diverse language communities in a colony or former colony.[8]
Lingua francas are often pre-existing languages with native speakers, but they can also be pidgins or creoles developed for that specific region or context. Pidgins are rapidly developed and simplified combinations of two or more established languages, while creoles are generally viewed as pidgins that have evolved into fully complex languages in the course of adaptation by subsequent generations.[9] Pre-existing lingua francas such as French are used to facilitate intercommunication in large-scale trade or political matters, while pidgins and creoles often arise out of colonial situations and a specific need for communication between colonists and indigenous peoples.[10] Pre-existing lingua francas are generally widespread, highly developed languages with many native speakers.[11] Conversely, pidgins are very simplified means of communication, containing loose structuring, few grammatical rules, and possessing few or no native speakers.Creole languages are more developed than their ancestral pidgins, utilizing more complex structure, grammar, and vocabulary, as well as having substantial communities of native speakers.[12]
Whereas avernacular language is the native language of a specific geographical community,[13] a lingua franca is used beyond the boundaries of its original community, for trade, religious, political, or academic reasons.[14] For example,English is avernacular in theUnited Kingdom but it is used as alingua franca in thePhilippines, alongsideFilipino. Likewise,Arabic,French,Standard Chinese,Russian andSpanish serve similar purposes as industrial and educational lingua francas across regional and national boundaries.
Even though they are used as bridge languages,international auxiliary languages such asEsperanto have not had a great degree of adoption, so they are not described as lingua francas.[15]
The termlingua franca derives fromMediterranean Lingua Franca (also known asSabir), the pidgin language that people around theLevant and the eastern Mediterranean Sea used as the main language of commerce and diplomacy from the lateMiddle Ages to the 18th century, most notably during theRenaissance era.[16][8] During that period, a simplified version of mainlyItalian in the eastern Mediterranean andSpanish in the western Mediterranean that incorporated manyloanwords fromGreek,Slavic languages,Arabic, andTurkish came to be widely used as the "lingua franca" of the region, although some scholars claim that the Mediterranean Lingua Franca was just poorly used Italian.[14]
In Lingua Franca (the specific language),lingua is from the Italian for 'a language'.Franca is related to GreekΦρᾰ́γκοι (Phránkoi) and Arabicإِفْرَنْجِي (ʾifranjiyy) as well as the equivalent Italian—in all three cases, the literal sense is 'Frankish', leading to the direct translation: 'language of theFranks'. During the lateByzantine Empire,Franks was a term that applied to all Western Europeans.[17][18][19][20]
Through changes of the term in literature,lingua franca has come to be interpreted as a general term for pidgins, creoles, and some or all forms of vehicular languages. This transition in meaning has been attributed to the idea that pidgin languages only became widely known from the 16th century on due to European colonization of continents such as The Americas, Africa, and Asia. During this time, the need for a term to address these pidgin languages arose, hence the shift in the meaning of Lingua Franca from a single proper noun to a common noun encompassing a large class of pidgin languages.[21]
As recently as the late 20th century, some restricted the use of the generic term to mean only mixed languages that are used as vehicular languages, its original meaning.[22]
Douglas Harper'sOnline Etymology Dictionary states that the termLingua Franca (as the name of the particular language) was first recorded in English during the 1670s,[23] although an even earlier example of the use of it in English is attested from 1632, where it is also referred to as "Bastard Spanish".[24]
The term is well established in its naturalization to English and so major dictionaries do not italicize it as a "foreign" term.[25][26][27]
Its plurals in English arelingua francas andlinguae francae,[26][27] with the former being first-listed[26][27] or only-listed[25] in major dictionaries, while the latter is rarely used.
The use of lingua francas has existed since antiquity.
Akkadian remained the common language of a large part of Western Asia from several earlier empires, until it was supplanted in this role byAramaic.[28][29]
Sanskrit historically served as a lingua franca throughout the majority of South Asia.[30][31][32] The Sanskrit language's historic presence is attested across a wide geography beyond South Asia. Inscriptions and literary evidence suggest that Sanskrit was already being adopted in Southeast Asia and Central Asia in the 1st millennium CE, through monks, religious pilgrims and merchants.[33][34][35]
Until the early 20th century,Literary Chinese served as both the written lingua franca and the diplomatic language in East Asia, including China,Korea,Japan,Ryūkyū, andVietnam.[36] In the early 20th century,vernacular written Chinese replaced Classical Chinese within China as both the written and spoken lingua franca for speakers of different Chinese dialects, and because of the declining power and cultural influence of China in East Asia, English has since replaced Classical Chinese as the lingua franca in East Asia.
Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the Hellenistic culture. Koine Greek[37][38][39] (ModernGreek:Ελληνιστική Κοινή,romanized: Ellinistikí Kiní,lit. 'Common Greek';Greek:[elinistiˈciciˈni]), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic, or Biblical Greek, was thecommon supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during theHellenistic period, theRoman Empire and the earlyByzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests ofAlexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries.[40]
Latin, through the power of theRoman Republic, became the dominant language inItaly and subsequently throughout the realms of the Roman Empire. Even after theFall of the Western Roman Empire, Latin was the common language of communication, science, and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became adead language in the modern linguistic definition.
Old Tamil was once the lingua franca for most of ancientTamilakam andSri Lanka.John Guy states that Tamil was also the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India.[41] The language and its dialects were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE.[42]
Classical Māori is the retrospective name for the language (formed out of many dialects, albeit all mutually intelligible)[43] of both the North Island and the South Island for the 800 years before theEuropean settlement of New Zealand.[44][45][46][47][48]Māori shared a common language that was used for trade, inter-iwi dialogue onmarae, and education throughwānanga.[49][50] After the signing of theTreaty of Waitangi, Māori language was the lingua franca of theColony of New Zealand until English superseded it in the 1870s.[43][51] The description of Māori language as New Zealand's 19th-century lingua franca has been widely accepted.[52][51][53][54] The language was initially vital for all European andChinese migrants in New Zealand to learn,[55][53][51] as Māori formed a majority of the population, owned nearly all the country's land and dominated the economy until the 1860s.[55][56] Discriminatory laws such as theNative Schools Act 1867 contributed to the demise of Māori language as a lingua franca.[43] In earlier contact eras, Māori was also among the bases forMaritime Polynesian Pidgin for use between European voyagers and trading Polynesians as a whole.[57]
Sogdian was used to facilitate trade between those who spoke different languages along theSilk Road, which is why native speakers of Sogdian were employed as translators inTang China.[58] The Sogdians also ended up circulating spiritual beliefs and texts, including those ofBuddhism andChristianity, thanks to their ability to communicate to many people in the region through their native language.[59]
TheMediterranean Lingua Franca was largely based on Italian andProvençal. This language was spoken from the 11th to 19th centuries around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in the European commercial empires of Italian cities (Genoa, Venice,Florence, Milan,Pisa,Siena) and in trading ports located throughout the eastern Mediterranean rim.[67]
During theRenaissance, standard Italian was spoken as a language of culture in the main royal courts of Europe, and among intellectuals. This lasted from the 14th century to the end of the 16th, when French replaced Italian as the usual lingua franca in northern Europe.[citation needed] Italian musical terms, in particular dynamic and tempo notations, have continued in use to the present day.[68][69]
Extent of Middle Low German in red with its use as a literary language black lines tilted right
Classical Quechua is either of two historical forms ofQuechua, the exact relationship and degree of closeness between which is controversial, and which have sometimes been identified with each other.[70] These are:
the variety of Quechua that was used as a lingua franca and administrative language in theInca Empire (1438–1533)[71] (or Inca lingua franca[72]). Since the Incas did not have writing, the evidence about the characteristics of this variety is scant and they have been a subject of significant disagreements.[73]
the variety of Quechua that was used in writing for religious and administrative purposes in the Andean territories of the Spanish Empire, mostly in the late 16th century and the first half of the 17th century and has sometimes been referred to, both historically and in academia, aslengua general ('common language')[74][75][76][77] (or Standard Colonial Quechua[78]).
Ajem-Turkic functioned as lingua franca in the Caucasus region and in southeasternDagestan, and was widely spoken at the court and in the army ofSafavid Iran.[79]
When theUnited Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of theBritish Empire. In the post-colonial period, most of the newly independent nations which had manyindigenous languages opted to continue using English as one of their official languages such asGhana andSouth Africa.[80] In other former colonies with several official languages such asSingapore andFiji, English is the primary medium of education and serves as the lingua franca among citizens.[83][84][85]
Even in countries not associated with theEnglish-speaking world, English has emerged as a lingua franca in certain situations where its use is perceived to be more efficient to communicate, especially among groups consisting of native speakers of many languages. InQatar, the medical community is primarily made up of workers from countries without English as a native language. In medical practices and hospitals, nurses typically communicate with other professionals in English as a lingua franca.[86] This occurrence has led to interest in researching the consequences of the medical community communicating in a lingua franca.[86] English is also sometimes used inSwitzerland between people who do not share one of Switzerland'sfour official languages, or with foreigners who are not fluent in the local language.[87] In theEuropean Union, the use of English as a lingua franca has led researchers to investigate whether aEuro English dialect has emerged.[88] In the fields of technology and science, English emerged as a lingua franca in the 20th century.[89] English has also significantlyinfluenced many other languages.[90]
Culturally important or secondary language (> 20% of the population)
The Spanish language spread mainly throughout theNew World, becoming a lingua franca in the territories and colonies of theSpanish Empire, which also included parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania. After the breakup of much of the empire in the Americas, its function as a lingua franca was solidified by the governments of the newly independent nations of what is nowHispanic America.[91] While its usage in Spain's Asia-Pacific colonies has largely died out except in thePhilippines, where it is still spoken by a small minority, Spanish became the lingua franca of what is nowEquatorial Guinea, being the main language of government and education and is spoken by the vast majority of the population.[92]
Due to large numbers of immigrants from Latin America in the second half of the 20th century and resulting influence, Spanish has also emerged somewhat as a lingua franca in parts of theSouthwestern United States and southernFlorida, especially in communities where native Spanish speakers form the majority of the population.[93][94]
At present it is the second most used language in international trade, and the third most used in politics, diplomacy and culture after English and French.[95]
Official language, but not a majority native language
Administrative or cultural language
French is sometimes regarded as the first global lingua franca, having supplantedLatin as the prestige language of politics, trade, education, diplomacy, and military inearly modern Europe and later spreading around the world with the establishment of theFrench colonial empire.[97] WithFrance emerging as the leading political, economic, and cultural power of Europe in the 16th century, the language was adopted by royal courts throughout the continent, including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Russia, and as the language of communication between European academics, merchants, and diplomats.[98] With the expansion of Western colonial empires, French became the main language of diplomacy and international relations up untilWorld War II when it was replaced by English due the rise of theUnited States as the leadingsuperpower. Stanley Meisler of theLos Angeles Times said that the fact that theTreaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.[99] Nevertheless, it remains the second most used language in international affairs and is one of thesix official languages of the United Nations.[100][101][102]
As a legacy of French andBelgian colonial rule, most former colonies of these countries maintain French as an official language or lingua franca due to the many indigenous languages spoken in their territory. Notably, in most FrancophoneWest andCentral African countries, French has transitioned from being only a lingua franca to the native language among some communities, mostly in urban areas or among the elite class.[103] In other regions such as the French-speaking countries of theMaghreb (Algeria,Tunisia,Morocco, andMauritania) and parts of theFrench Caribbean, French is the lingua franca in professional sectors and education, even though it is not the native language of the majority.[104][105][106]
French continues to be used as a lingua franca in certain cultural fields such ascuisine,fashion, andsport.[107][97]
As a consequence ofBrexit, French has been increasingly used as a lingua franca in theEuropean Union and its institutions either alongside or, at times, in place of English.[108][109]
Today,Standard Mandarin Chinese is the lingua franca ofChina andTaiwan, which are home to many mutually unintelligiblevarieties of Chinese and, in the case of Taiwan, indigenousFormosan languages. Among manyChinese diaspora communities,Cantonese is often used as the lingua franca instead, particularly in Southeast Asia, due to a longer history of immigration and trade networks with southern China, although Mandarin has also been adopted in some circles since the 2000s.[110]
Arabic language map Dark green: majority; light green: significant minority
Arabic was used as a lingua franca across the Islamic empires, whose sizes necessitated a common language, and spread across the Arab and Muslim worlds.[111] InDjibouti and parts ofEritrea, both of which are countries where multiple official languages are spoken, Arabic has emerged as a lingua franca in part thanks to the population of the region being predominantly Muslim and Arabic playing a crucial role in Islam. In addition, after having fled from Eritrea due toongoing warfare and gone to some of the nearby Arab countries, Eritrean emigrants are contributing to Arabic becoming a lingua franca in the region by coming back to their homelands having picked up the Arabic language.[112]
Areas where Russian is the majority language (medium blue) or a minority language (light blue)
Russian is in use and widely understood inCentral Asia and theCaucasus, areas formerly part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Its use remains prevalent in manypost-Soviet states. Russian has some presence as a minority language in theBaltic states and some other states in Eastern Europe, as well as in pre-opening China.[citation needed] It remains the official language of theCommonwealth of Independent States. Russian is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.[113] Since thecollapse of the Soviet Union, its use has declined in post-Soviet states. Parts of the Russian speaking minorities outside Russia have either emigrated to Russia or assimilated into their countries of residence by learning the local language, which they now prefer to use in daily communication.
For contrast, inCentral European countries that after the Second World War were included in the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, the Russian language was used only asEastern Bloc's language of internal political communication. There are no Russian minorities in these countries, in schools the primary foreign language is English and nowadays the Russian language practically does not exist.
(co-)official language and first language of the majority
co-official, but not the first language of the majority
legally recognized minority language
sizable minority, without legal recognition
German is used as a lingua franca in Switzerland to some extent; however, English is generally preferred to avoid favoring it over the three other official languages. German remains a widely studied language in Central Europe and the Balkans, especially informer Yugoslavia. It is recognized as an official language in countries outside of Europe, specificallyNamibia. German is also one of theworking languages of the EU along with English and French, but it is used less in that role than the other two.
Portuguese served as lingua franca in the Portuguese Empire, Africa, South America and Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries. 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 Dutch, English or French ships came to compete with the Portuguese, the crews tried to learn this "broken Portuguese". Through a process of change the lingua franca and Portuguese lexicon was replaced with the languages of the people in contact. Portuguese remains an important lingua franca in thePortuguese-speaking African countries,East Timor, and to a certain extent inMacau where it is recognized as an official language alongside Chinese though in practice not commonly spoken. Portuguese and Spanish have a certain degree ofmutual intelligibility andmixed languages such asPortuñol are used[citation needed] to facilitate communication in areas like the border area between Brazil and Uruguay.
TheHindi Belt (red) is a linguistic region in India whereHindustani (based onDehlavi) serves as thelingua franca.
TheHindustani language, withHindi andUrdu as dual standard varieties, serves as the lingua franca ofPakistan andNorthern India.[123][self-published source?][124][page needed] Many Hindi-speaking North Indian states have adopted thethree-language formula in which students are taught: "(a) Hindi (with Sanskrit as part of the composite course); (b) Any other modern Indian language including Urdu and (c) English or any other modern European language." The order in non-Hindi speaking states is: "(a) the major language of the state or region; (b) Hindi; (c) Any other modern Indian language including Urdu but excluding (a) and (b) above; and (d) English or any other modern European language."[125] Hindi has also emerged as a lingua franca inArunachal Pradesh, a linguistically diverse state in Northeast India.[126][127] It is estimated that nine-tenths of the state's population knows Hindi.[128]
Urdu is the lingua franca of Pakistan and had gained significant influence amongst its people, administration and education. While it shares official status with English, Urdu is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups of Pakistan.[129]
Countries where pluricentric Malay is spoken, regardless of standard variety
Malay is understood across a cultural region in Southeast Asia called the "Malay world" includingBrunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southernThailand, and certain parts of the Philippines. It ispluricentric, with several nations codifying a local vernacular variety into several national literary standards:[130] AlthoughJavanese has more native speakers, Indonesia uses a standardized form ofRiau Malay as the basis for the national language "Indonesian." Bahasa Indonesia is the sole official language even though it is the mother tongue ofonly 7% of Indonesians.[131]
Geographic extent of Swahili. Dark green: native range. Medium green: official use. Light green: bilingual use but not official.
Swahili developed as a lingua franca between severalBantu-speaking tribal groups on the east coast of Africa with heavy influence from Arabic.[132] The earliest examples of writing in Swahili are from 1711.[133] In the early 19th century the use of Swahili as a lingua franca moved inland with the Arabic ivory and slave traders. It was eventually adopted by Europeans as well during periods of colonization in the area. German colonizers used it as the language of administration inGerman East Africa, later becomingTanganyika, which influenced the choice to use it as a national language in what is now independentTanzania.[132] Swahili is currently one of the national languages and it is taught in schools and universities in several East African countries, thus prompting it to be regarded as a modern-day lingua franca by many people in the region. SeveralPan-African writers and politicians have unsuccessfully called for Swahili to become the lingua franca of Africa as a means of unifying the African continent and overcoming the legacy of colonialism.[134]
Areas with significant numbers of people whose first language is Persian (including dialects)
Persian, anIranian language, is the official language ofIran,Afghanistan (Dari) andTajikistan (Tajik). It acts as a lingua franca in both Iran and Afghanistan between the various ethnic groups in those countries. The Persian language in South Asia, before theBritish colonized the Indian subcontinent, was the region's lingua franca and a widely used official language in north India and Pakistan.
Hausa is the language of communication between speakers of different languages in NorthernNigeria and other West African countries,[135] including the northern region of Ghana.[136]
Map of the various sign languages of North America, excludingFrancosign languages.Hand Talk was the predominant lingua franca prior to European settlement, able to be written down and signed alongside oral languages
The majority of pre-colonial North American nations communicated internationally usingHand Talk.[139][140] Also called Prairie Sign Language, Plains Indian Sign Language, or First Nations Sign Language, this language functioned predominantly—and still continues to function[141]—as a second language within most of the (now historical) countries of the Great Plains, fromNewe Segobia in the West toAnishinaabewaki in the East, down into what are now the northern states of Mexico and up intoCree Country stopping beforeDenendeh.[142][143] The relationship remains unknown between Hand Talk and other manual Indigenous languages likeKeresan Sign Language andPlateau Sign Language, the latter of which is now extinct (though Ktunaxa Sign Language is still used).[144] Although unrelated, perhapsInuit Sign Language played and continues to play a similar role acrossInuit Nunangat and the variousInuitdialects. The original Hand Talk is found acrossIndian Country in pockets, but it has also been employed to create new or revive old languages, such as withOneida Sign Language.[145]
International Sign, though a pidgin language, is present at most significant international gatherings, from which interpretations of nationalsign languages are given, such as inLSF,ASL,BSL,Libras, orAuslan. International Sign, or IS and formerly Gestuno, interpreters can be found at manyEuropean Union parliamentary or committee sittings,[146] during certain United Nations affairs,[147] conducting international sporting events like theDeaflympics, in allWorld Federation of the Deaf functions, and across similar settings. The language has few set internal grammatical rules, instead co-opting national vocabularies of the speaker and audience, and modifying the words to bridge linguistic gaps, with heavy use of gestures andclassifiers.[148]
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