Lingua Franca

A lingua franca (or working language, bridge language, vehicular language) is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues. Lingua francas have arisen around the globe throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages") but also for diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities.

Read more about Lingua Franca:  Characteristics, Etymology, Examples

Famous quotes containing the word franca:

    He tries by a peculiar speech to speak
    The peculiar potency of the general,
    To compound the imagination’s Latin with
    The lingua franca et jocundissima.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)