Lingua Franca

Lingua Franca, language used over a wide geographical area as a means of communication—generally to facilitate commerce and trading—by people who have no other language in common. The term is derived from Lingua Franca (Italian “Frankish (European) language”), a pidgin, or simplified compromise language, based on Italian and Provençal, with admixtures of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Greek, and Arabic (depending upon the area in which it was spoken) used in the Mediterranean area by traders in the Middle Ages. As exploration opened up new areas of trade, lingua francas developed, especially in the New World and the Far East. Pidgin languages are lingua francas. Examples are Chinook Jargon, based on Chinook augmented by other Native American languages, English, and Canadian French, formerly used in the Pacific North-West; and Fanagalo, a Zulu-based pidgin with influences from English and Afrikaans, spoken in southern Africa, and originated in the 19th-century mining communities. A pre-existing, unsimplified language may also be used as a lingua franca, for example, French, the language of 18th-century diplomacy; Swahili, spoken today throughout East Africa; or English, the most widespread lingua franca today, used in 105 countries across the world.