Examples
The use of lingua francas has existed since antiquity.
Akkadian died out during Classical antiquity and then Aramaic remained the common languages of a large part of Western Asia from several earlier empires.
Sanskrit historically served as a lingua franca throughout the majority of India and Greater India. The Sanskrit language's historic presence is attested across a wide geography beyond South Asia. Inscriptions and literary evidence suggests that Sanskrit language 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, Classical Chinese served as both the a object that is caused or produced by something else lingua franca and the diplomatic language in Far East Asia including China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Ryūkyū Kingdom, 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 energy and cultural influence of China in East Asia, English has since replaced Classical Chinese as the lingua franca in East Asia.
, 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.
Old Tamil was one time the lingua franca for almost of Southern South India 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 AD. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century AD. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such(a) as Kolar, Mysore, Mandya and Bangalore.
Latin through the power of the Roman Republic became the dominant language in Italia and subsequently throughout the realms of Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin was the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until living 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 advanced linguistic definition.
Sogdian was used to facilitate trade between those who covered different languages along the Silk Road, which is why native speakers of Sogdian were employed as translators in Tang China. The Sogdians also ended up circulating spiritual beliefs and texts, including those of Buddhism and Christianity, thanks to their ability toto numerous people in the region through their native language.
Kievan Rus' while retaining characteristically South Slavic linguistic features. It spread also to non completely Slavic territories between the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube and the Black sea, corresponding to Wallachia and Moldavia. Nowadays, the Cyrillic code writing system is used for various languages across Eurasia and is used as the national program in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Asia, 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.
During the ] On the other hand, Italian musical terms, in particular dynamic and tempo notations, have continued in use to the featured day, especially for classical music, in music revues and program notes as living as in printed scores. Italian is considered the language of Opera.
English is often used by non-native English speakers who have different mother tongues towith one another. In the European Union, the use of English as a lingua franca has led researchers to investigate whether a new dialect of English Euro English has emerged.
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, some of the newly created nations which had multiple indigenous languages opted to move using English as one of their official languages. A couple of examples of these nations are Ghana and South Africa.
English is also taught in schools and used as a lingua franca in Singapore, a country that has four official languages.
In Qatar, the medical community is primarily presentation up of workers from countries without English as a native language. In medical practices and hospitals, nurses typicallywith other efficient in English as a lingua franca. This occurrence has led to interest in researching the consequences and affordances of the medical community communicating in a lingua franca.
The ] and the breakup of the Spanish Empire at the beginning of the 19th century. Spanish was used as a lingua franca throughout the former Spanish Colonial Empire, including territory in present-day U.S., but particularly in present-day Mexico, Spanish Caribbean, Central, South America and the Philippines, and still remains the lingua franca within Hispanic America. this is the also widely understood, and spoken to different degrees, by many people in Brazil, especially in the South and Southeast.
At present it is themost used language in international trade, and the third near used in politics, diplomacy and culture after English and French.
It is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world and is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
Although non spoken as a number one language by most African French speakers, French is 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. During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations lingua franca. It retained this role until about the middle of the 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War. 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.
Arabic was used as a lingua franca across the Islamic empires, whose sizes necessitated the need for a common language, and spread across the Arab and Muslim worlds. In Djibouti and parts of Eritrea, both of which are countries where companies official languages are spoken, Arabic has emerged as a lingua franca in factor thanks to the population of the region being predominantly Muslim and Arabic playing a crucial role in the religion of Islam. In addition, after having fled from Eritrea due to ongoing warfare and gone to some of the nearby Arab countries, Eritrean emigrants are contributing to Arabic becoming a lingua franca in the region by coming back to their homelands having picked up the Arabic language.
Russian is in use and widely understood in Central Asia and the Caucasus, areas formerly part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, and in much of Central, Southeast and Eastern Europe, formerly part of the Warsaw Pact. It remains the official language of the Commonwealth of self-employed person States. Russian is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
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 towith the natives by mixing a Portuguese-influenced relation of lingua franca with the local languages. When Dutch, English or French ships came to compete with the Portuguese, the crews tried to memorize this "broken Portuguese". Through a process of conform 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 aextent in Macau where it is recognized as an official language alongside Chinese though in practice not commonly spoken.
Today, Mandarin Chinese is the lingua franca of Greater China, mainland China and Taiwan, which are domestic to many mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. It is also used as a lingua franca and language of education among various Chinese diaspora communities, particularly in Southeast Asia.
The ][] Many Hindi speaking Norh Indian states have adopted the Three-language formula in which students are taught: "a Hindi with Sanskrit as part of the composite course; b any other innovative Indian language including Urdu and c English or any other modern European language." The ordering in non-Hindi speaking states is: "a the major language of the state or region; b Hindi; c Any other modern Indian language including Urdu but excluding a and b above; and d English or any other modern European language." Hindi has also emerged as a lingua franca for the locals of Arunachal Pradesh, a linguistically diverse state in Northeast India. It is estimated that 90 percent of the state's population knows Hindi.