English as a lingua franca

[Beverly Flanigan]

The first use of the term Lingua Franca (marked now with caps), as I recall
from creole studies, was in fact to refer to the mixed trade language used
around the Mediterranean area in the first few centuries C.E. and derived
mainly from Latin and its already evolving dialects (hence the Arabs'
notion that it was the language of the generalized northern or Frankish
tribes), mixed considerably with Arabic, Turkish, Greek and other regional
tongues.  Thus, any such useful language used for contact purposes has
since been called a lingua franca (now with lower case).


At 10:58 AM 4/27/01 -0700, you wrote:
>At 10:04 AM 4/27/2001 -0500, Robert Wachal wrote:
>>The 'franca' in the expression probably refers to a Germanic language and
>>not to French.
>
>
>    When the term was coined, I think the Arabs referred to populations
> north of the Mediterranean as the Franks. The term literally meant
> 'language of the Franks'. I have no idea what correlation it has with the
> fact that the French had also been "colonized" by the Frankish Germans.
>
>Sali.
>
>**********************************************************
>Salikoko S. Mufwene                        s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
>University of Chicago                      773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924
>Department of Linguistics
>1010 East 59th Street
>Chicago, IL 60637
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_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm