List of lingua francas

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This is a list of lingua francas. A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a first language, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both speakers' first languages.

Examples of lingua francas are numerous and exist on every continent. The most utilized modern example is English, which is the current dominant lingua franca of international diplomacy, business, science, technology and aviation, but many other languages serve, or have served at different historical periods, as lingua francas in particular regions, countries, or in special contexts.

Africa

Akan

In Namibia, Afrikaans holds a more universal role than in South Africa, across ethnic groups and races and is the spoken lingua franca in the capital Windhoek and throughout most of central and southern Namibia. There are pockets where German is commonly spoken. English is the sole official language.^{[citation needed]}

Amazigh

There are more Arabic speakers in Africa than in Asia. It is spoken as an official language in all of the continent's Arab League states. Arabic is also spoken as a trade language across the Sahara as far as the Sahel, including parts of Mali, Chad and Borno State in Nigeria. Varieties and Arabic-based pidgins function as the lingua francas of Sudan (Sudanese Arabic), Chad (Chadian Arabic; mainly in the northern half of the country), and South Sudan (Juba Arabic; mainly the Equatoria region). Sudan has a majority of people that speak Arabic natively and minorities that speak various other languages in addition to Arabic, while native Arabic speakers are a significant minority in Chad and a very small minority in South Sudan.^{[citation needed]}

Bantu Botatwe

Bantu Botatwe is the lingua franca of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Nyanja is also a main language.^{[citation needed]}

Ewondo

Fanagalo or Fanakalo is a pidgin based on the Zulu, English, and Afrikaans languages. It was used as a lingua franca mainly in the mining industries in South Africa, however, in this role, it is being increasingly eclipsed by English which is viewed as being more neutral politically.^[1]

Fon

Fon is regarded as the lingua franca of the southern third of Benin, which is the most densely populated area and includes the largest cities and the national capital.^{[citation needed]}

Fula

Fula (Fula: Fulfulde or Pulaar or Pular, depending on the region; French: Peul) the language of the Fula people or Fulani (Fula: Fulɓe; French: Peuls) and associated groups such as the Toucouleur. Fula is spoken in all countries directly south of the Sahara (such as Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Niger, Mali...). It is spoken mainly by Fula people, but is also used as a lingua franca by several populations of various origins, throughout Western Africa.^{[citation needed]} One region where it is particularly important as a link language is the Adamawa Plateau of northern Cameroon, which, although largely populated by non-Fula people, was united and ruled by Fula conquerors prior to colonial rule. Fula is also the main lingua franca of the Sahel Region of Burkina Faso.^{[citation needed]}

Hausa

A pidgin based on the Kongo language which originated when Belgian colonists enlisted West African labor to help build a local railroad, Kituba is used in the southern half of the Republic of the Congo and the Kwilu and Kwango provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.^{[citation needed]}

Krio

The

Between 1880 and 1900, the colonial administration, in need of a common language for the region, adopted a simplified form of Bobangi, the language of the Bangala people, which became Lingala. Spoken Lingala has many loanwords from French, inflected with Lingala affixes.^{[citation needed]}

Lozi

The Lozi language is a lingua franca in Zambia.^{[citation needed]}

Manding

The largely interintelligible

Mende is a regional lingua franca of southeastern Sierra Leone, although almost the entire population speaks the Krio language.^{[citation needed]}

Ngambay

Ngambay is an important lingua franca of southwestern Chad, covering areas where Chadian Arabic is not as widespread. It is the most important of the Sara languages and may be used by speakers of other varieties.^{[citation needed]}

Sango

The Sango language is a lingua franca developed for intertribal trading in the Central African Republic. It is based on the Northern Ngbandi language spoken by the Sango people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo but with a large vocabulary of French loan words. It has now been institutionalised as an official language of the Central African Republic.^{[citation needed]}

Sar

Sar is the lingua franca of the city of Sarh in Chad and surrounding areas, although not as widespread as Ngambay.^{[citation needed]}

Swahili

It has official status as a national language in DR Congo, Tanzania and Kenya, and symbolic official status (understood but not widely spoken) in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. It is the first language of education in Tanzania and in much of eastern Congo. It is also the auxiliary language to be in the proposed East African Federation.^{[citation needed]}

Temne

Temne is a regional lingua franca of northwestern Sierra Leone, although almost the entire population speaks the Krio language.^{[citation needed]}

West African Pidgin English

West African Pidgin English is used by an estimated 75 million people across coastal West Africa, mainly as a second language. It is used in Nigeria, where it functions as something close to a national lingua franca (Nigerian Pidgin, as well as Ghana (Ghanaian Pidgin English) and Cameroon (Cameroonian Pidgin English), mainly the two anglophone regions. Closely related languages are used as lingua francas in Sierra Leone (Krio), Liberia (Liberian Kreyol) and Bioko island of Equatorial Guinea (Pichinglis).^{[citation needed]}

Wolof

Wolof is a widely spoken lingua franca of Senegal and The Gambia (especially the capital, Banjul). It is the native language of approximately 5 million Wolof people in Senegal and is spoken as a second language by an equal number.^{[citation needed]}

Asia

Akkadian

In the Middle East, from around the 24th century BC to the 8th century BC, forms of Akkadian were the universally recognized language. It was used throughout the Akkadian Empire, as well as later states such as Assyria and Babylon. It was also used as internationally as a diplomatic language – for example between Egypt and Babylon – well after the fall of the Akkadian Empire itself and even while Aramaic was more common in Babylon, beginning from the 8th century BC. Akkadian eventually lost its primacy and became extinct by the 1st century AD.^{[citation needed]}

Arabic

According to Encarta, which classified Chinese as a single language, Arabic is the second largest native language.^[9] Used by more than a billion Muslims around the world,^[8] it is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.^[10]

Aramaic

Two other lingue franche based on Assamese, Nagamese and Nefamese, still exist today in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh respectively.^{[citation needed]}

Azerbaijani

Hindi has emerged as a lingua franca for the locals of Arunachal Pradesh, a linguistically diverse state in Northeast India.^[17] It is estimated that 90 percent of the state's population knows Hindi.^[18] A variety known as Haflong Hindi is widely used in the Dima Hasao district.^{[citation needed]}

Hindi is also understood by a large number of people in

Indonesian, a standardized variety of Malay, serves as a lingua franca throughout Indonesia and East Timor (where it is considered a working language), areas that are home to over 700 indigenous languages.^{[citation needed]}

Lao

Lao is spoken natively by only around half of the population of Laos, and the remainder of the population speaks unrelated languages such as Hmong or Khmu. However, Lao serves as the lingua franca throughout the country.^{[citation needed]}

Malay

In the 15th century, during the

Nefamese is a pidgin that was once the main lingua franca of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, although it has been increasingly replaced by Hindi.^{[citation needed]}

Nepali

In the Iranic world, before it began to succumb to the process of Westernization, the New Persian language, which had been fashioned into literary form in mighty works of art ... gained a currency as a lingua franca; and at its widest, about the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries of the Christian Era, its range in this role extended, without a break, across the face of South-Eastern Europe and South-Western Asia.[24]

Persian remains the lingua franca in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.^{[citation needed]}

Sadri

Sanskrit historically served as a lingua franca throughout the majority of India.^{[25][26][27][28]}

Sogdian

Sogdian 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 China.^[29] 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.^[30]

Tagalog

Tagalog was declared the official language in 1897 by the first constitution in the Philippines, the Constitution of Biak-na-Bato.^[31] Native Tagalog speakers are one of the country's largest linguistic and cultural groups, numbering an estimated 14 million. The Filipino language, which is the standardised register of Tagalog, is taught in schools nationwide and is an official language of education and business along with English.^[32]

Due to the large number of

Many people in Thailand do not speak Central Thai (often referred to as just "Thai") as their native language and instead speak another Thai language, such as Isan, Northern Thai, or Southern Thai etc.; nevertheless, Central Thai is considered the standard and is taught in the education system. As a result, most citizens are able to use Central Thai to communicate.^{[citation needed]}

Europe

Greek and Latin

During the time of the

Between the 9th and 11th centuries, Old Church Slavonic was the lingua franca of a great part of the predominantly Slavic states and populations in Southeast and Eastern Europe, in liturgy and church organization, culture, literature, education and diplomacy, as 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).^[36][37]

Old Church Slavonic spread to other South-Eastern, Central, and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notably

English is the current lingua franca of international business, education, science, technology, diplomacy, entertainment, radio, seafaring, and aviation. Since the end of World War I, it has gradually replaced French as the lingua franca of international diplomacy.^[39] The rise of English in diplomacy began in 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as in French, the dominant language used in diplomacy until that time. The widespread use of English was further advanced by the prominent international role played by English-speaking nations (the United States and the Commonwealth of Nations) in the aftermath of World War II, particularly in the establishment and organization of the United Nations. English is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (the other five being French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish). The seating and roll-call order in sessions of the United Nations and its subsidiary and affiliated organizations are determined by alphabetical order of the English names of the countries.^{[citation needed]}

When the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of the

French was the language of diplomacy from the 17th century until the mid-20th century,^[39] and is still a working language of some international institutions. In the international sporting world, French is still the lingua franca of the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, and the FIA. French is still seen on documents ranging from passports to airmail letters.^{[citation needed]}

French is spoken by educated people in cosmopolitan cities of the Middle East and North Africa and remains so in the former French colonies of the Maghreb, where French is particularly important in economic capitals such as Algiers, Casablanca and Tunis. Until the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon, French was spoken by the upper-class Christian population. French is still a lingua franca in most Western and Central African countries and an official language of many, a remnant of French and Belgian colonialism. These African countries and others are members of the Francophonie. French is the official language of the Universal Postal Union, with English added as a working language in 1994.^[43]

German

German served as a lingua franca in portions of Europe for centuries, mainly the Holy Roman Empire outside of the sphere of influence of the Hanseatic League, which used Low German, and to a lesser extent in Eastern Europe where the Polish Empire and the Russian Empire dominated, and South-Eastern Europe where the Ottoman Empire was the dominant cultural influence over the centuries. In fact, the Romantic movement with Goethe and Schiller at its top, at the end of the 18th century, served as a rediscovery of the German language for the German people that used, at this point, largely French as a lingua franca like almost all European regions, but German can be indeed still considered as a lingua franca though with far less importance than French until the 20th century or English today.^{[citation needed]}

German remained an important second language in much of

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.^[45]

During the

In the Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy, Italian is known by a large part of members and is used in substitution of Latin in most official documents as well. The presence of Italian as the official language in Vatican City indicates its use not only in the seat in Rome, but also anywhere in the world where an episcopal seat is present.^{[citation needed]}

Italian served as the official lingua franca in

From about 1200 to 1600, Middle Low German was the language of the Hanseatic League which was present in most Northern European seaports, even London.^{[citation needed]} It resulted in numerous Low German words being borrowed into Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. After the Middle Ages, modern High German and Dutch began to displace Low German, and it has now been reduced to many regional dialects, although they are still largely mutually intelligible. In recent years, the language has seen a resurgence in public interest, and it is increasingly being used as a mode of communication between speakers of (northern) German and (eastern) Dutch nationality.^{[citation needed]}

Polish

Polish was a lingua franca in areas of Central and Eastern Europe, especially regions that belonged to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Polish was for several centuries the main language spoken by the ruling classes in Lithuania and Ukraine, and the modern state of Belarus.^[48] After the Partitions of Poland and the incorporation of most of the Polish areas into the Russian Empire as Congress Poland, the Russian language almost completely supplanted Polish.^{[citation needed]}

Portuguese

Portuguese served as the 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 the 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 were replaced with the languages of the people in contact.^{[citation needed]}

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 and widely spoken.^{[citation needed]}

Russian

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.[49]

Turkish

In the United States, as well as South America, the Yiddish language bonded Jews from many countries. Most of the Jewish immigrants to the New York metropolitan area during the years of Ellis Island considered Yiddish their native language. Later, Yiddish was no longer the primary language for the majority of the remaining speakers and often served as a lingua franca for the Jewish immigrants who did not know each other's primary language, particularly following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yiddish was also the language in which second-generation immigrants often continued to communicate with their relatives who remained in Europe or moved to Israel, with English, Spanish or Portuguese being the primary language of the first and Russian, Romanian, or Hebrew that of the second.^{[citation needed]}

Pre-Columbian North America

Classic Maya

Classic Maya was commonly used as a written language in the Maya civilization, and may have also been a spoken lingua franca among Maya elites.^{[citation needed]}

Chinook Jargon

Chinook Jargon was originally constructed from a great variety of Amerind words of the Pacific Northwest, arising as an intra-indigenous contact language in a region marked by divisive geography and intense linguistic diversity. The participating peoples came from a number of very distinct language families, speaking dozens of individual languages.^{[citation needed]}

After European contact, the Jargon also acquired English and French loans, as well as words brought by other European, Asian, and Polynesian groups. Some individuals from all these groups soon adopted the Jargon as a highly efficient and accessible form of communication. This use continued in some business sectors well into the 20th century and some of its words continue to feature in company and organization names as well as in the regional toponymy.^{[citation needed]}

In the

Jones estimates that in pioneer times there were about 100,000 speakers of Chinook Jargon.^[citation needed]

Hand Talk

After the Spanish conquest, Nahuatl remained the lingua franca of New Spain. Spanish friars matched the language to a Latin alphabet, and schools were established to teach Nahuatl to Spanish priests, diplomats, judges, and political leaders. In 1570, Nahuatl was made the official language of New Spain, and it became the lingua franca throughout Spanish North America, used in trade and the courts. During the prolonged Spanish conquest of Guatemala Spain's native allies, mostly from Tlaxcala and Cholula, spread Nahuatl to Maya areas where it was not spoken prior to the arrival of the Spanish, resulting in Nahuatl placenames across Guatemala which persist up to the present.^{[50][full citation needed]} In 1696, the official use of any language other than Spanish was banned throughout the empire. Especially since Mexican independence, the use of Nahuatl has dwindled.^{[citation needed]}

Occaneechi

Prior to European colonization, the Occaneechi dialect of the Tutelo language served as a lingua franca in the land that would become the state of Virginia. Tutelo was a Siouan language. But Robert Beverley Jr., in the 18th century, observed that the Tuscarora, who spoke an Iroquoian language, and the Powhatan, who spoke an Algonquian language, both used Occaneechi in religious ceremonies, much like modern Christian communities use Latin.^[51] Beverley also noted that the Occaneechi language was used by all native nations of Virginia as a trade language.^{[citation needed]}

After European colonists introduced devastating infectious diseases, all native languages of Virginia began to decline. All dialects of Tutelo, including Occaneechi, became extinct by the end of the 20th century. However, there is considerable documentation of the language by numerous linguists, and interest among modern Tutelo people in reviving the language.^[52]

Post-Columbian South America

Portuguese and Spanish started to grow as lingua francas in the region since the conquests of the 16th century. In the case of Spanish, this process was not even and as the Spanish used the structure of the Inca Empire to consolidate their rule Quechua remained the lingua franca of large parts of what is now Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Quechua's importance as a language for trade and dealing with Spanish-approved indigenous authorities (

Various pidgin languages have been used in many locations and times as a common trade speech. They can be based on English, French, Chinese, or indeed any other language. A pidgin is defined by its use as a lingua franca, between populations speaking other mother tongues. When a pidgin becomes a population's first language, then it is called a creole language.^{[citation needed]}

Guinea-Bissau Creole

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• Interlinguistics
• International auxiliary language
• International English
• Classical language

References