what is meant by lingua franca?

Answer 1

A commonly spoken language among speakers of other languages. An example of a lingua franca would be Swahilli, which is a language used for trade and commerce among many African peoples who speak different languages.

In western europe, Latin was a lingua franca for many years. It was the language of the educated classes from all the nations (France, Germany, England, etc.)

Here's Dictionary.Com's definition for you.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lingua%20franca

Answer 2

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 the name 'Franks' for all peoples in Western Europe). Then, it meant a language with a Romance lexicon (most words derived from Italian and Spanish) and a very simple grammar, that till the end of the 19th century was used by mariners in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in the Middle East and Northern Africa

Answer 3

Lingua Franca is a pidgin, a trade language used by numerous language communities around the Mediterranean, to communicate with others whose language they did not speak. It is, in fact, the mother of all pidgins, seemingly in use since the Middle Ages and surviving until the nineteenth century, when it disappeared with hardly a trace, probably under the onslaught of the triumphant French language, leaving only a few anecdotal quotations in the writings of travelers or observers, an imperfect French/Lingua Franca vocabulary (1830) meant for settlers in the newly annexed territory of Algeria, and some other rather strange detritus which I have tried to put together in the Glossary in a consistent fashion. The only oral survival of which I am aware for certain is the initial numerals of Lingua Franca in the mouths of the present-day children of Jerusalem, who use them as a counting-out rhyme, innocently unaware that they are not mere nonsense syllables, but the sad remnant of a once highly useful means of communication, an informal Mediterranean Esperanto. Like other pidgins, it had a limited vocabulary and a sharply circumscribed grammar, and lacked those things, such as verb tenses and case endings, that add specificity to human speech.

Answer 4

Qoute:

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 the name 'Franks' for all peoples in Western Europe). Then, it meant a language with a Romance lexicon (most words derived from Italian and Spanish) and a very simple grammar, that till the end of the 19th century was used by mariners in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in the 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.

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Answer 5

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.

Italian dialects were spoken in medieval times as lingua franca in the european commercial empires of Italian cities (Genoa, Venice, Florence, Milan, Pisa, Siena, Amalfi) and in their colonies located in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean sea. During the Renaissance Italian was also spoken as language of culture in the main royal courts of Europe and among intellectuals. The Italian language is actually used as a lingua franca in some environments. For example, in the Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy, Italian is known by a large part of members and is used in substitution of Latin in some official documents as well. The presence of Italian as the second official language in Vatican City indicates not only use in the seat in Rome, but also in the whole world where an episcopal seat is present.

Answer 6

I think it might mean that the Europeans are united in their common feeling of Anti-Americanism. In this case, Lingua Franca is being used figuratively. Instead of a "common language" for the Europeans, it's a "common feeling." edit: Anti-American is not a language; therefore, it does not fit the traditional definition of 'lingua franca,' which is a common language that's used by people who speak different languages. That's why I've stated above that it's being used figuratively, not literally.

Answer 7

French Language

Answer 8

there is one main lingua franca it is English it is the common currency of language as evidensed by the internet and buisness you can use around the world followed by spanish hindi chinese (forgot madarin or cantonese)
it is not French as one has posted what a lame post really

Answer 9

French language

Answer 10

i have no idea