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General sense
The term lingua franca (the name comes from the historical
sense) refers to a language more widely used: adopted as a common means of communication between people of different
languages. English is the current lingua franca of
international business, and people with foreign dealings around the world are fast becoming acclimated to its use. Despite
superficial differences, such as accents, an overall
proficiency in English is steadily growing. Accents simply bear the tonal qualities of the regional dialects. India, for example,
speaks with a distinct accent, yet maintains a high level of literacy and proficiency.
In the past Koine Greek, Latin and French have all served as a lingua
franca in the Western-dominated world. German served as a lingua franca in large portions of Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries,
especially in business. In some regions of the world, there are other languages that perform this function; for example, Swahili in Eastern Africa, Hindi in most of India, Malay in South-East
Asia, Bislama in the Pacific Islands, and various other Pidgin languages in other
locations and times. Portuguese served as lingua franca in Africa and Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries, especially.
Mandarin Chinese also serves a function of providing a common
spoken language between speakers of different and mutually unintelligible Chinese dialects.
Esperanto and Ido are constructed languages that some people propose as a replacement for
English as the global lingua franca. Their supporters argue that a lingua franca should be as simple as
possible, while still being highly expressive. They claim that English and other natural languages, being ethnically derived, are
not suitable for a common language, since each ethnic language contains caveats and idiosyncracies that hamper their ability to
be learned, and since ethnic languages confer an automatic advantage to native speakers in interaction between native speakers
and non-native speakers.
Also, a natural language carries a people's culture and values. When French was the dominant language of Europe and the world,
French culture and values were also dominant, at the expense of the other cultures. The hegemony of a single living language
inevitably leads to major inequalities among linguistic communities. Linguistic competence is for example a major advantage when
competing for top managerial positions.
Constructed languages tend to base their premise of universality on the assumption of a need for extreme simplicity, and the
premise that non-native speakers should not be at a disadvantage. Their advocates claim that idiosyncratic elements as presented
in ethnic languages are a major obstacle to a functional degree of use in that language. Unfortunately some learning curve still
applies to constructed languages; and as such, their use is still rare.
According to advocates of constructed languages, the number of speakers is no measure of the intrinsic value of a constructed
language. If a constructed language (or other language with few speakers) were to be decided upon such as by international
agreement to be used as an international auxiliary language, the number of speakers would rise to meet the demand. At
present, the demand for speakers of constructed languages is limited, though Esperanto is said to have gained currency as a
lingua franca among translators.
Historical sense
Lingua Franca (Italian meaning "Frankish language") or Sabir ("to know") was an early
pidgin language, used in the Mediterranean area from the 14th century or earlier and
still in use in the 20th century.
It had a heavy influence of Romance languages, especially
Italian dialects.
It was the language used between slaves and their captors in the bagnio of Algiers.
According to the monogenetic theory of the origin of pidgins pioneered by Hugo Schuchardt, Lingua Franca was
known by Mediterranean sailors including the Portuguese. When 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 relexification, the Lingua Franca and
Portuguese wordstock was substituted by the languages of the peoples in contact.
This theory explains the similarities between most of the European-based pidgins and creoles, like Tok Pisin, Papiamento, Sranang Tongo, Krio, Chinese English
Pidgin. These languages use forms similar to sabir for "to know" and piquenho for "children".
Lingua Franca left traces in today's Algerian slang and Polari. Polari from Italian parlare
("to talk") was a cant used by London variety artists and gays.
English words like "savvy" (from
sabir) and "pickanniny" can be traced to Lingua Franca.
External links
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