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<blockquote type="cite" cite>The 'franca' in the expression probably
refers to a Germanic language and not to French.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>At 01:33 PM 4/26/01 EDT, you
wrote:</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>>>>></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="-1">
(At least the French can take comfort</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="-1">in the term "lingua
franca." The phrase, if</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="-1">not the reality...very
much to gallic tastes,</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font
size="-1">that.)</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><<<<</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>Well, I was looking at that too. I had assumed, quite
possibly without foundation, that the "franc-" stem here
doesn't really refer directly to a language, but derives from the
Frankish people via the connection with the meaning of 'free'
(obviously preserved in mod. Eng. "frank",
"frankly", etc.). Here's the OED on this, at
"frank", an interesting history even if not directly
relevant to the current topic:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>FRANK, adj.</div>
<div>[med.Lat.<i> francus</i> free; originally identical with the
ethnic name Francus (see Frank sb.1), which acquired the sense of
`free' because in Frankish Gaul full freedom was possessed only
by</div>
<div>those belonging to, or adopted into, the dominant people. Cf.
the use of the originally ethnic name slave, and of OE. wealh, orig.
`Welshman', to denote a person of servile condition. ]</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>(This reference to the source of<i> "slave"</i> as an
etymological ethnic slur was something that didn't come up in our
earlier discussion of such labels.)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>There are related senses of "frank" as 'generous,
liberal', 'open', or predictably in the negative sense of 'unchaste'
when applied to women. The question, though, is whether the
"franca" of "lingua franca" is the feminine form
of the medieval Latin, and presumably Italian, adjective
"francus"/"franco", or whether it refers directly
to Frankish or French. In the latter case, is the reference
really to "Italian mixed with French (and other languages)"
(as the AHD4 claims) or to "Italian mixed with (Germanic)
Frankish", as Bob Wachal claims above? I have no
idea. In either case, the current speakers of French are indeed
heirs to the nation of Frankish speakers--"Frankish
Gaul"--as preserved in the name of the country and language, and
thus may well take comfort and cultural pride from "lingua
franca". Someone must have looked at this in much more
detail.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>larry</div>
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