lingua franca
1
6.4
- noun
- /ˈlɪŋɡwə ˈfræŋkə/
:
lingua franca
- In many international meetings, English serves as the lingua franca allowing participants to understand each other.
- English as a lingua franca
- become the lingua franca
- remains the lingua franca
Examples
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For a long time now, English has served as the lingua franca, or common language, of the Internet.
Blog text (16) -
Computers can be used to acquire the same skills anywhere in the world, and English has become a lingua franca for Internet communication.
Academic text (2002) -
English has become the modern lingua franca, and communication is possible no matter where we are.
Academic text (2010) -
English does seem to be the lingua franca of software development.
Blog text (31) -
Today, English is the lingua franca of the planet for everything from air traffic control to entertainment.
Academic text (2004) -
African music, jazz and rock has become the lingua franca of Western music in America and Europe.
-
Second, it was used as a lingua franca throughout much of the archipelago.
Academic text (1992) -
Everywhere I go around the earth, people speak English because that's the lingua franca of science, technology, business.
-
American English was (and is) the lingua franca of the Philippines' middle and upper classes.
Academic text (1992) -
Almost everyone is fluent in Pijin English, the lingua franca of the Solomon Islands.
Academic text (1994)
Synonyms
1
8.2
A language people use to communicate across different groups
A language used by people with different first languages to talk to each other
A common language used by people who speak different native languages to communicate
How Widely Used
Surface Forms
Morphology
lingua + franca
This is a conventionalized loan phrase: although 'lingua' corresponds to 'language', 'franca' is not an English word and its historical meaning ('Frankish'/'free') is not transparent to a B1 learner, so the full sense 'common language between groups' cannot be reliably derived from the parts. The expression functions as a fixed technical term that learners must have encountered; cross-linguistic cognates may help some learners but are not sufficient to make it compositionally predictable.
Etymology
Lingua franca may come from old Italian: lingua means 'language' and franca meant 'Frankish' or 'foreign'. Traders and sailors used a simple mixed speech called the 'Frankish language' to talk with people who had different native languages, so lingua franca now means a 'common language' used between people with different native languages.