Editing Lingua franca (section)

==Characteristics==
[[File:The Harmsworth atlas and Gazetter 1908 Trade language world map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Trade languages of the world in 1908 from ''The Harmsworth Atlas and Gazetteer'']]

Any language regularly used for communication between people who do not share a native language is a lingua franca.<ref>"vehicular, adj." ''OED Online''. Oxford University Press, July 2018. Web. 1 November 2018.</ref> Lingua franca is a functional term, independent of any linguistic history or language structure.<ref>[http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/Courses/PCs/IntroPidginsCreoles.htm Intro Sociolinguistics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522043320/http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/Courses/PCs/IntroPidginsCreoles.htm |date=22 May 2018 }} – ''Pidgin and Creole Languages: Origins and Relationships'' – Notes for LG102, – University of Essex, Peter L. Patrick – Week 11, Autumn term.</ref>

[[Pidgin]]s are therefore lingua francas; [[creole languages|creoles]] and arguably [[mixed language]]s may similarly be used for communication between language groups. But lingua franca is equally applicable to a non-creole language native to one nation (often a colonial power) learned as a [[second language]] and used for communication between diverse language communities in a colony or former colony.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://www.termcoord.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Lingua_franca.pdf|title=Lingua Franca: Chomera or Reality?|year=2010|publisher=Publ. Office of the Europ. Union |isbn=9789279189876|access-date=15 December 2018|archive-date=27 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227090056/https://termcoord.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Lingua_franca.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Lingua francas are often pre-existing languages with native speakers, but they can also be pidgins or creoles developed for that specific region or context. Pidgins are rapidly developed and simplified combinations of two or more established languages, while creoles are generally viewed as pidgins that have evolved into fully complex languages in the course of adaptation by subsequent generations.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pidgin and Creole Languages|last=Romaine|first=Suzanne|publisher=Longman|year=1988}}</ref> Pre-existing lingua francas such as French are used to facilitate intercommunication in large-scale trade or political matters, while pidgins and creoles often arise out of colonial situations and a specific need for communication between colonists and indigenous peoples.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thariqalfathih.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/lingua-franca-pidgin-and-creole/|title=Lingua Franca, Pidgin, and Creole|date=3 April 2015|access-date=29 April 2019|archive-date=21 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200821190239/https://thariqalfathih.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/lingua-franca-pidgin-and-creole/|url-status=live}}</ref> Pre-existing lingua francas are generally widespread, highly developed languages with many native speakers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-31 |title=Definition of LINGUA FRANCA |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lingua%20franca |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref> Conversely, pidgins are very simplified means of communication, containing loose structuring, few grammatical rules, and possessing few or no native speakers. [[Creole language|Creole]] languages are more developed than their ancestral pidgins, utilizing more complex structure, grammar, and vocabulary, as well as having substantial communities of native speakers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Language – Pidgins and creoles|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/language|access-date=2021-05-11|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=5 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141205091036/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/329791/language/27194/Linguistic-change|url-status=live}}</ref>

Whereas a [[vernacular]] language is the native language of a specific geographical community,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Definition of VERNACULAR|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vernacular|access-date=2021-05-11|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en|archive-date=15 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515083616/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vernacular|url-status=live}}</ref> a lingua franca is used beyond the boundaries of its original community, for trade, religious, political, or academic reasons.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Dursteler|first=Eric R.|title=Speaking in Tongues: Language and Communication in the Early Modern Mediterranean|date=2012|journal=Past & Present|issue=217|pages=47–77|doi=10.1093/pastj/gts023}}</ref> For example, [[English language|English]] is a {{Emphasis|vernacular}} in the [[United Kingdom]] but it is used as a {{Emphasis|lingua franca}} in the [[Philippines]], alongside [[Filipino language|Filipino]]. Likewise, [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[French language|French]], [[Standard Chinese]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] serve similar purposes as industrial and educational lingua francas across regional and national boundaries.

Even though they are used as bridge languages, [[international auxiliary language]]s such as [[Esperanto]] have not had a great degree of adoption, so they are not described as lingua francas.<ref>{{cite web|last=Directorate-General for Translation|first=European Commission|year=2011|title=Studies on translation and multilingualism|url=http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/language-technologies/docs/lingua-franca-en.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115090926/http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/language-technologies/docs/lingua-franca-en.pdf|archive-date=2012-11-15|publisher=Europa (web portal)|pages=8, 22–23|quote=Up to now [constructed languages] have all proved transient and none has actually achieved the status of lingua franca with a large community of fluent speakers.}}</ref>