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A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication ( LWC), is a Natural language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a First language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages.Viacheslav A. Chirikba, "The problem of the Caucasian Sprachbund" in Pieter Muysken, ed., From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics, 2008, p. 31.
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. (2025). 9780226000299, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226000299 The term is taken from the medieval Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a Romance-based pidgin language used especially by traders in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th centuries. A world language—a language spoken internationally and by many people—is a language that may function as a global lingua franca.
are therefore lingua francas; creole languages and arguably 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 a second language and used for communication between diverse language communities in a colony or former colony.
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. 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. Pre-existing lingua francas are generally widespread, highly developed languages with many native speakers. Conversely, pidgins are very simplified means of communication, containing loose structuring, few grammatical rules, and possessing few or no native speakers. Creole language languages are more developed than their ancestral pidgins, utilizing more complex structure, grammar, and vocabulary, as well as having substantial communities of native speakers.
Whereas a vernacular language is the native language of a specific geographical community, a lingua franca is used beyond the boundaries of its original community, for trade, religious, political, or academic reasons. For example, English language is a in the United Kingdom but it is used as a in the Philippines, alongside Filipino. Likewise, Arabic language, French language, Standard Chinese, Russian language and Spanish language 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 as Esperanto have not had a great degree of adoption, so they are not described as lingua francas.
In Lingua Franca (the specific language), lingua is from the Italian for 'a language'. Franca is related to Greek Φρᾰ́γκοι (Phránkoi]]) and Arabic إِفْرَنْجِي (ʾifranjiyy) as well as the equivalent Italian—in all three cases, the literal sense is 'Frankish', leading to the direct translation: 'language of the Franks'. During the late Byzantine Empire, Franks was a term that applied to all Western Europeans.[2]
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.
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.Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, Simon and Schuster, 1980
Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary states that the term Lingua Franca (as the name of the particular language) was first recorded in English during the 1670s, 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".
Its plurals in English are lingua francas and linguae francae, with the former being first-listed or only-listed in major dictionaries, while the latter is rarely used.
Akkadian remained the common language of a large part of Western Asia from several earlier empires, until it was supplanted in this role by Aramaic.Ostler, 2005 pp. 38–40Ostler, 2010 pp. 163–167
Sanskrit historically served as a lingua franca throughout the majority of South Asia.The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel. Nicholas Ostler. Ch.7. A Dictionary of Buddhism p.350 Before the European Challenge: The Great Civilizations of Asia and the Middle East p.180 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.
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, and Vietnam. 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 (Modern ; ), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic, or Biblical Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander 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.
Latin, through the power of the Roman Republic, became the dominant language in Italy and subsequently throughout the realms of the Roman Empire. Even after the Fall 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 a dead language in the modern linguistic definition.
Old Tamil was once the lingua franca for most of ancient Tamilakam and Sri Lanka. John Guy states that Tamil was also the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. 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.
Classical Māori is the retrospective name for the language (formed out of many dialects, albeit all mutually intelligible) of both the North Island and the South Island for the 800 years before the European settlement of New Zealand. Ko Aotearoa Tēnei, Te Taumata Tuarua - Wai 262 (2011), Waitangi Tribunal, pp. 41Preservation of Classical Maori', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A.H. McLintock. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/maori-language/page-10 (accessed 16 Mar 2024) High or Classical Māori: Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 21. 5 September 1973 Māori shared a common language that was used for trade, inter-iwi dialogue on marae, and education through wānanga. After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori language was the lingua franca of the Colony of New Zealand until English superseded it in the 1870s. The description of Māori language as New Zealand's 19th-century lingua franca has been widely accepted.Benton, Richard A. "Changes in Language Use in a Rural Maori Community 1963-1978." The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 89, no. 4, 1980, pp. 455–78. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20705517. Accessed 15 Mar. 2024. The language was initially vital for all European and Chinese migrants in New Zealand to learn, as Māori formed a majority of the population, owned nearly all the country's land and dominated the economy until the 1860s. Discriminatory laws such as the Native schools contributed to the demise of Māori language as a lingua franca.
Sogdian language was used to facilitate trade between those who spoke different languages along the Silk Road, which is why native speakers of Sogdian were employed as translators in Tang dynasty. The Sogdians also ended up circulating spiritual beliefs and texts, including those of Buddhism and Christianity, thanks to their ability to communicate to many people in the region through their native language.
Old Church Slavonic, an Eastern South Slavic language, is the first Slavic literary language. Between 9th and 11th century, it was the lingua franca of a great part of the predominantly Slavs states and populations in Southeast Europe and Eastern Europe, in liturgy and church organization, culture, literature, education and diplomacy, as an Official language and National language in the case of Bulgaria. It was the first national and also international Slavic literary language (autonym словѣ́ньскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ, slověnĭskŭ językŭ). The Glagolitic alphabet was originally used at both schools, though the Cyrillic script was developed early on at the Preslav Literary School, where it superseded Glagolitic as the official script in Bulgaria in 893. Old Church Slavonic spread to other South-Eastern, Central, and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notably Croatia, Serbia, Bohemia, Lesser Poland, and principalities of the Kievan Rus' while retaining characteristically South Slavic linguistic features. It spread also to not completely Slavic territories between the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube and the Black Sea, corresponding to Wallachia and Moldavia. Nowadays, the Cyrillic writing system is used for various languages across Eurasia, and as the national script in various Slavic, Turkic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central, North, and East Asia.
The Mediterranean Lingua Franca was largely based on Italian and Provençal. 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.Henry Romanos Kahane. The Lingua Franca in the Levant (Turkish Nautical Terms of Italian and Greek Origin)
During the Renaissance, 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. Italian musical terms, in particular dynamic and tempo notations, have continued in use to the present day. Low German, also known as Low Saxon, used to be the Lingua franca during the late Hohenstaufen till the mid-15th century periods (Middle Low German), in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea when extensive trading was done by the Hanseatic League along the Baltic and North Seas.
Classical Quechua is either of two historical forms of Quechua, the exact relationship and degree of closeness between which is controversial, and which have sometimes been identified with each other.See Itier (2000: 47) for the distinction between the first and second enumerated senses, and the quote below for their partial identification. These are:
Ajem-Turkic functioned as lingua franca in the Caucasus region and in southeastern Dagestan, and was widely spoken at the court and in the army of Safavid Iran.
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English is sometimes described as the foremost global lingua franca, being used as a working language by individuals of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in a variety of fields and international organizations to communicate with one another. English is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the historical global influence of the British Empire as well as the United States. It is a co-official language of the United Nations and many other international and regional organizations and has also become the de facto language of diplomacy, science, international trade, tourism, aviation, entertainment and the Internet.
When the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of the British Empire. In the post-colonial period, most of the newly independent nations which had many indigenous languages opted to continue using English as one of their official languages such as Ghana and South Africa. In other former colonies with several official languages such as Singapore and Fiji, English is the primary medium of education and serves as the lingua franca among citizens.
Even in countries not associated with the English-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. In Qatar, 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. This occurrence has led to interest in researching the consequences of the medical community communicating in a lingua franca. English is also sometimes used in Switzerland between people who do not share one of Switzerland's four official languages, or with foreigners who are not fluent in the local language. In the European Union, the use of English as a lingua franca has led researchers to investigate whether a Euro English dialect has emerged. (2025). 382336250X, Narr. 382336250X In the fields of technology and science, English emerged as a lingua franca in the 20th century. English has also significantly Englishisation many other languages.
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The Spanish language spread mainly throughout the New World, becoming a lingua franca in the territories and colonies of the Spanish 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 now Hispanic America. While its usage in Spain's Asia-Pacific colonies has largely died out except in the Philippines, where it is still spoken by a small minority, Spanish became the lingua franca of what is now Equatorial Guinea, being the main language of government and education and is spoken by the vast majority of the population.Germán de Granda (1991). 9788477622062, Universidad de Valladolid, Secretariado de Publicaciones. . ISBN 9788477622062
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 the Southwestern United States and southern Florida, especially in communities where native Spanish speakers form the majority of the population.
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. – Copyright 2003 Quaderns Digitals Todos los derechos reservados ISSN 1575-9393.
It is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world Spanish in the World , Language Magazine, 18 November 2019. and is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
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French is sometimes regarded as the first global lingua franca, having supplanted Latin as the prestige language of politics, trade, education, diplomacy, and military in early modern Europe and later spreading around the world with the establishment of the French colonial empire. With France 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. With the expansion of Western colonial empires, French became the main language of diplomacy and international relations up until World War II when it was replaced by English due the rise of the United States as the leading superpower. Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. Nevertheless, it remains the second most used language in international affairs and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. The World's 10 Most Influential Languages Top Languages. Retrieved 11 April 2011. What are the official languages of the United Nations?, Ask UN, 23 December 2023.
As a legacy of French and Belgian 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 Francophone West Africa and 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. In other regions such as the French-speaking countries of the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania) and parts of the French Caribbean, French is the lingua franca in professional sectors and education, even though it is not the native language of the majority.Maamri, Malika Rebai. " The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria." ( Archive) International Journal of Arts and Sciences. 3(3): 77 – 89 (2009) CD-ROM. p. 10 of 13Felicien, Marie Michelle. Schools Teaching in Creole Instead of French on the Rise in Haiti, Global Press Journal, 13 November 2019
French continues to be used as a lingua franca in certain cultural fields such as cuisine, fashion, and sport.Notaker, Henry. How French Cuisine Took Over the World, excerpt from A History of Cookbooks From Kitchen to Page over Seven Centuries, University of California Press, 13 September 2017.
As a consequence of Brexit, French has been increasingly used as a lingua franca in the European Union and its institutions either alongside or, at times, in place of English.Chazan, Guy and Jim Brunsden. Push to bid adieu to English as EU's lingua franca, Financial Times, 28 June 2016.Rankin, Jennifer. Brexit: English is losing its importance in Europe, says Juncker, The Guardian, 5 May 2017.
For contrast, in countries that after the Second World War were included in the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, the Russian language was used only as Eastern 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.
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German language 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 in former Yugoslavia. It is recognized as an official language in countries outside of Europe, specifically Namibia. German is also one of the of the EU along English and French, but it is used less in that role than the other two.
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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 the Portuguese-speaking African countries, East Timor, and to a certain extent in Macau where it is recognized as an official language alongside Chinese though in practice not commonly spoken. Portuguese and Spanish have a certain degree of mutual intelligibility and such as Portuñol are used to facilitate communication in areas like the border area between Brazil and Uruguay.
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.
International Sign, though a pidgin language, is present at most significant international gatherings, from which interpretations of national are given, such as in LSF, ASL, BSL, Libras, or Auslan. International Sign, or IS and formerly Gestuno, interpreters can be found at many European Union parliamentary or committee sittings, during certain United Nations affairs, conducting international sporting events like the Deaflympics, in all World 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 and classifiers.
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