A lingua franca is any language widely used beyond its native speakers, primarily for international commerce but extending to other cultural exchanges, such as diplomacy. The origin of the term lingua franca is Italian (literally "Frankish language"), derived from the medieval Arab and Muslim use of "Franks" (ancient Germans) as a generic term for Europeans during the period of the Crusades. The United Nations, with its headquarters in New York City, is the largest international diplomatic organization. ... The Frankish language can refer to: the language spoken by the Franks, a Germanic people active in the Roman era, often now called Old Frankish a West Franconian dialect of modern German spoken in Alsace and Lorraine, regions in France the Franconian language family In the second sense, Frankish (German... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ʻarab) are an originally Arabian ethnicity widespread in the Middle East and North Africa. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) is a believer in or follower of Islam. ... Franks can refer to: in medieval European history, the Frankish people, Germanic tribes who entered the Roman Empire from Frisia in the first five centuries AD in medieval Middle Eastern history, the Crusaders, or more broadly any persons originating in Catholic western Europe. ... This article is about the continent. ... This article is about historical Crusades . ...

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) 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. Persian (فارسی / پارسی), (local name in Iran (Persia), Afghanistan and Tajikistan: ‘Fârsi’), ‘Pârsi’ (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan), is a language spoken in Iran (Persia), Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, and elsewhere. ... Arabic (العربية) is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... A Pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. ... The term Creole is used with different meanings in different contexts, which can generate confusion. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...

In an important sense, the terms "lingua franca" and "diplomatic language" remain distinct; the former refers largely to spoken languages which find common use, while the latter is typically limited to common written systems which do not directly find use among the common public. A prime example is Akkadian, which (as shown in the Amarna letters) was used for correspondence between Egypt and its Canaanite vassals, amongst others. This diplomatic-level communication would, over time, serve language (hence cultural) transculturation, eventually developing the Greek and Roman writing systems, that we currently use today. Akkadian was a language of the Semitic family spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... The Amarna letters is the name popularly given to a cache of correspondence, mostly diplomatic, found at Amarna, the modern name for the capital of the Egyptian New Kingdom primarily from the reign of pharaoh Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten (1369 - 1353 BCE). ... Canaanite can describe anything pertaining to Canaan: in particular, its languages and inhabitants. ... Transculturation is a term coined by Fernando Ortiz in 1947 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures. ... ... A writing system, also called a script, is used to visually record a language with symbols. ...

Greco-Roman culture

During the Roman Empire and for the following millennium the lingua franca was Greek in the east and Latin in the west. The French language also served as lingua franca later on. French has been the language of diplomacy in Europe from the 17th century, and as a result is still the working language of international institutions and is seen on documents ranging from passports to airmail letters. German served as a lingua franca in portions of Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, especially in business, politics, science (physics), and sociology. English is the current lingua franca of Western international business and has displaced French in diplomacy. The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus). ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

In other regions of the world, other languages perform the function of a lingua franca: Portuguese served as lingua franca in Africa and Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries. Swahili in East Africa, Russian in areas formerly associated with the Soviet Union, German in much of Eastern Europe until after World War II, Hindustani (along with English) in India, Malay in South-East Asia, Bislama in the Pacific Islands, and various Pidgin languages in other locations and times. Mandarin Chinese also serves a function of providing a common spoken language between speakers of different and mutually unintelligible Chinese dialects. In Switzerland, which has four different official languages, English serves as a lingua franca with citizens and the relatively high (20%) foreign population. Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see Kiswahili for a discussion of the nomenclature) is an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa. ... East Africa is a region generally considered to include: Djibouti Eritrea Ethiopia Kenya Somalia Tanzania Uganda [[Image:Example. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb. ... Hindustani Hindustani (or the Hindustani language) is a term used by linguists to describe a closely related series of languages or dialects stretching across the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. ... The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who are native to the Malay peninsula, southern Thailand, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, and parts of the coast of Borneo. ... Bislama is a Melanesian creole language, one of the official languages of Vanuatu. ... A Pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. ... This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. ...

See also: international auxiliary language An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ...

In a specific sense

Lingua Franca meaning "Frankish language" was an early language, used in the Mediterranean area from the 14th century or earlier and still in use in the 20th century. Lingua Franca was known by Mediterranean sailors including the Portuguese. 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 English or French ships came to compete with the Portuguese, the crew tried to learn this "broken Portuguese". Through a process of change the Lingua Franca and Portuguese wordstock was substituted by the languages of the people in contact.

Polari, the gay cant slang in 1950s-1960s Britain, derives partly from Lingua Franca. Polari (or alternatively Palare, from Italian parlare, to talk) was a form of cant slang used in the gay subculture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. ... Look up gay in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Until several decades ago, the word gay meant something like jolly or mirthful. In contemporary usage, however, that meaning is unusual; the term is usually synonymous with homosexual. ... Cant is a term generally used to describe secret languages (cryptolects) used by gypsies, thieves, and others who have a need to communicate freely without necessarily conveying their meaning to a wider audience. ... Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ... // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ...

External links

• Ethnologue entry for Lingua Franca

• A Glossary of Lingua Franca