Editing Lingua franca (section)

====Spanish====
[[File:Map-Hispanophone World.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Spanish language distribution
{{legend|#045a8d|Official language}}
{{legend|#0674b6|Co-official language}}
{{legend|#9bbae1|Culturally important or secondary language (> 20% of the population)}}
]]
The Spanish language spread mainly throughout the [[New World]], becoming a lingua franca in the territories and colonies of the [[Spanish Empire]], which also included parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania. After the breakup of much of the empire in the Americas, its function as a lingua franca was solidified by the governments of the newly independent nations of what is now [[Hispanic America]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stavans |first1=Ilan |title=The Spanish Language in Latin America since Independence |url=https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-371 |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History |access-date=2 June 2021 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.371 |date=2017-04-26|isbn=978-0-19-936643-9 }}</ref> While its usage in Spain's Asia-Pacific colonies has largely died out except in the [[Philippines]], where it is still spoken by a small minority, Spanish became the lingua franca of what is now [[Equatorial Guinea]], being the main language of government and education and is spoken by the vast majority of the population.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Granda|first=Germán de|title=El Español en Tres Mundos: Retenciones y Contactos Lingüísticos en América y África|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pasdAQAAIAAJ|date=1 January 1991|publisher=Universidad de Valladolid, Secretariado de Publicaciones|isbn=9788477622062|language=es}}</ref>

Due to large numbers of immigrants from Latin America in the second half of the 20th century and resulting influence, Spanish has also emerged somewhat as a lingua franca in parts of the [[Southwestern United States]] and southern [[Florida]], especially in communities where native Spanish speakers form the majority of the population.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Macías|first=Reynaldo|date=2014|title=Spanish as the Second National Language of the United States: Fact, Future, Fiction, or Hope?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43284061|journal=Review of Research in Education|volume=38|pages=33–57|doi=10.3102/0091732X13506544 |jstor=43284061 |s2cid=143648085 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Lynch|first=Andrew|date=2023|title=Heritage language socialization at work: Spanish in Miami|journal=Journal of World Languages|volume=9|issue=1|pages=111–132 |doi=10.1515/jwl-2022-0048 |s2cid=255570955 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

At present it is the second most used language in international trade, and the third most used in politics, diplomacy and culture after English and French.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20221017152438/http://www.quadernsdigitals.net/index.php?accionMenu=secciones.VisualizaArticuloSeccionIU.visualiza&proyecto_id=361&articuloSeccion_id=4463 "¿Por qué los brasileños deben aprender español?"]}} – Copyright 2003 Quaderns Digitals Todos los derechos reservados ISSN 1575-9393.</ref>

It is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world<ref>[https://www.languagemagazine.com/2019/11/18/spanish-in-the-world/ Spanish in the World] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206042553/https://www.languagemagazine.com/2019/11/18/spanish-in-the-world/ |date=6 February 2021}}, ''Language Magazine'', 18 November 2019.</ref> and is also one of the [[Official languages of the United Nations|six official languages of the United Nations]].