Gaume ( French pronunciation: [ɡom] ) is a region in the extreme southeast of Belgium . At a lower altitude than the Ardennes , it borders the French region of Lorraine to the south (although some consider the bordering parts of Lorraine to be Gaume française ), the Land of Arlon (Luxembourgish: Arelerland) to the east, and the Belgian part of the Ardennes to the north.
88-568: In cultural terms, Gaume is the Romance -speaking part of what is now called Belgian Lorraine , Arelerland being its Luxembourgish-speaking part. Gaume was part of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg till 1839, when it was integrated in the newly created Belgian province of Luxembourg. It is composed of the districts of Chiny , Étalle , Florenville , Habay , Meix-devant-Virton , Musson , Rouvroy , Tintigny and Virton , but some villages in
176-426: A bridge language , common language , trade language , auxiliary language , link language or language of wider communication ( LWC ), is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages. Linguae francae have developed around
264-498: A dialect continuum , where the speech variety of a location differs only slightly from that of a neighboring location, but over a longer distance these differences can accumulate to the point where two remote locations speak what may be unambiguously characterized as separate languages. This makes drawing language boundaries difficult, and as such there is no unambiguous way to divide the Romance varieties into individual languages. Even
352-785: A vernacular language is the native language of a specific geographical community, a lingua franca is used beyond the boundaries of its original community, for trade, religious, political, or academic reasons. For example, English is a vernacular in the United Kingdom but it is used as a lingua franca in the Philippines , alongside Filipino . Likewise, Arabic , French , Standard Chinese , Russian and 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 languages such as Esperanto have not had
440-525: A common language, and spread across the Arab and Muslim worlds. In Djibouti and parts of Eritrea , both of which are countries where multiple official languages are spoken, Arabic has emerged as a lingua franca in part thanks to the population of the region being predominantly Muslim and Arabic playing a crucial role in Islam. In addition, after having fled from Eritrea due to ongoing warfare and gone to some of
528-531: A great degree of adoption, so they are not described as lingua francas. The term lingua franca derives from Mediterranean Lingua Franca (also known as Sabir ), the pidgin language that people around the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean Sea used as the main language of commerce and diplomacy from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century, most notably during the Renaissance era . During that period,
616-855: A minority language in the Baltic states and some other states in Eastern Europe, as well as in pre- opening China. It remains the official language of the Commonwealth of Independent States . Russian is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union , its use has declined in post-Soviet states. Parts of the Russian speaking minorities outside Russia have emigrated to Russia or assimilated into their countries of residence by learning
704-551: A native language. In medical practices and hospitals, nurses typically communicate with other professionals in English as a lingua franca. This occurrence has led to interest in researching the consequences of the medical community communicating in a lingua franca. English is also sometimes used in Switzerland between people who do not share one of Switzerland's four official languages , or with foreigners who are not fluent in
792-598: A potential source of separatist movements; therefore, they have generally fought to eliminate it, by extensively promoting the use of the official language, restricting the use of the other languages in the media, recognizing them as mere "dialects", or even persecuting them. As a result, all of these languages are considered endangered to varying degrees according to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages , ranging from "vulnerable" (e.g. Sicilian and Venetian ) to "severely endangered" ( Franco-Provençal , most of
880-664: A process of change the lingua franca and Portuguese lexicon was replaced with the languages of the people in contact. Portuguese remains an important lingua franca in the Portuguese-speaking African countries , East Timor , and to a certain extent in Macau where it is recognized as an official language alongside Chinese though in practice not commonly spoken. Portuguese and Spanish have a certain degree of mutual intelligibility and mixed languages such as Portuñol are used to facilitate communication in areas like
968-498: A simplified version of mainly Italian in the eastern Mediterranean and Spanish in the western Mediterranean that incorporated many loanwords from Greek , Slavic languages , Arabic , and Turkish came to be widely used as the "lingua franca" of the region, although some scholars claim that the Mediterranean Lingua Franca was just poorly used Italian. In Lingua Franca (the specific language), lingua
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#17327731590561056-846: A single country. Portuguese is the official language of six African countries ( Angola , Cape Verde , Guinea-Bissau , Mozambique , Equatorial Guinea , and São Tomé and Príncipe ), and is spoken as a native language by perhaps 16 million residents of that continent. In Asia, Portuguese is co-official with other languages in East Timor and Macau , while most Portuguese-speakers in Asia—some 400,000 —are in Japan due to return immigration of Japanese Brazilians . In North America 1,000,000 people speak Portuguese as their home language, mainly immigrants from Brazil, Portugal, and other Portuguese-speaking countries and their descendants. In Oceania, Portuguese
1144-591: A variant spoken in Riau specifically as the basis for " Indonesian " for national use despite Javanese having more native speakers; this standard is the sole official language spoken throughout the vast country despite being the first language of some Indonesians. Swahili developed as a lingua franca between several Bantu -speaking tribal groups on the east coast of Africa with heavy influence from Arabic. The earliest examples of writing in Swahili are from 1711. In
1232-607: A variety of fields and international organizations to communicate with one another. English is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the historical global influence of the British Empire and the United States . It is a co-official language of the United Nations and many other international and regional organizations and has also become the de facto language of diplomacy , science , international trade , tourism , aviation , entertainment and
1320-710: A widely studied language in Central Europe and the Balkans, especially in former Yugoslavia . It is recognized as an official language in countries outside of Europe, specifically Namibia . German is also one of the working languages of the EU along English and French, but it is used less in that role than the other two. Today, Standard Mandarin Chinese is the lingua franca of China and Taiwan , which are home to many mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese and, in
1408-742: Is Spanish , followed by Portuguese , French , Italian and Romanian , which together cover a vast territory in Europe and beyond, and work as official and national languages in dozens of countries. In Europe, at least one Romance language is official in France , Portugal , Spain , Italy , Switzerland , Belgium , Romania , Moldova , Transnistria , Monaco , Andorra , San Marino and Vatican City . In these countries, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Romansh and Catalan have constitutional official status. French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Romanian are also official languages of
1496-1076: Is a popular destination for tourism in Belgium . The Lorrain language , a langue d'oïl that is distinct from the Walloon language , is a minority language in Gaume, where it is known as gaumais . Although it is declining, several local authors are trying to revive its usage. Lorrain is recognized as a regional language of Wallonia. 49°37′N 5°34′E / 49.617°N 5.567°E / 49.617; 5.567 Romance languages Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Romance languages , also known as
1584-764: Is an official language in Spain and in nine countries of South America , home to about half that continent's population; in six countries of Central America (all except Belize ); and in Mexico . In the Caribbean , it is official in Cuba , the Dominican Republic , and Puerto Rico . In all these countries, Latin American Spanish is the vernacular language of the majority of the population, giving Spanish
1672-569: Is attested across a wide geography beyond South Asia. Inscriptions and literary evidence suggest that Sanskrit was already being adopted in Southeast Asia and Central Asia in the 1st millennium CE, through monks, religious pilgrims and merchants. Until the early 20th century, Literary Chinese served as both the written lingua franca and the diplomatic language in East Asia, including China, Korea , Japan , Ryūkyū , and Vietnam . In
1760-482: Is controversial, and which have sometimes been identified with each other. These are: Ajem-Turkic functioned as lingua franca in the Caucasus region and in southeastern Dagestan , and was widely spoken at the court and in the army of Safavid Iran . English is sometimes described as the foremost global lingua franca, being used as a working language by individuals of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in
1848-569: 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. 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
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#17327731590561936-522: Is from the Italian for 'a language'. Franca is related to Greek Φρᾰ́γκοι ( Phránkoi ) and Arabic إِفْرَنْجِي ( ʾifranjiyy ) as well as the equivalent Italian—in all three cases, the literal sense is ' Frankish ', leading to the direct translation: 'language of the Franks '. During the late Byzantine Empire , Franks was a term that applied to all Western Europeans. Through changes of
2024-422: Is limited, and the literature is often hard to interpret or generalize. Many of its speakers were soldiers, slaves, displaced peoples, and forced resettlers, and more likely to be natives of conquered lands than natives of Rome. In Western Europe, Latin gradually replaced Celtic and other Italic languages , which were related to it by a shared Indo-European origin. Commonalities in syntax and vocabulary facilitated
2112-1088: Is spoken by many residents of Alghero , on the island of Sardinia , and it is co-official in that city. Galician , with more than three million speakers, is official together with Spanish in Galicia , and has legal recognition in neighbouring territories in Castilla y León . A few other languages have official recognition on a regional or otherwise limited level; for instance, Asturian and Aragonese in Spain; Mirandese in Portugal; Friulian , Sardinian and Franco-Provençal in Italy; and Romansh in Switzerland. The remaining Romance languages survive mostly as spoken languages for informal contact. National governments have historically viewed linguistic diversity as an economic, administrative or military liability, as well as
2200-526: Is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups of Pakistan. Malay is understood across a cultural region in Southeast Asia called the " Malay world " including Brunei , Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand , and certain parts of the Philippines. It is pluricentric , with several nations codifying a local vernacular variety into several national literary standards: Indonesia notably adopts
2288-519: Is the primary medium of education and serves as the lingua franca among citizens. Even in countries not associated with the English-speaking world , English has emerged as a lingua franca in certain situations where its use is perceived to be more efficient to communicate, especially among groups consisting of native speakers of many languages. In Qatar , the medical community is primarily made up of workers from countries without English as
2376-496: Is the second most spoken Romance language, after French, due mainly to the number of speakers in East Timor . Its closest relative, Galician, has official status in the autonomous community of Galicia in Spain , together with Spanish. Outside Europe, French is spoken natively most in the Canadian province of Quebec , and in parts of New Brunswick and Ontario . Canada is officially bilingual , with French and English being
2464-706: Is used as a lingua franca in Switzerland to some extent; however, English is generally preferred to avoid favoring it over the three other official languages. Middle Low German used to be the Lingua franca during the late Hohenstaufen till the mid-15th century periods, in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea when extensive trading was done by the Hanseatic League along the Baltic and North Seas. German remains
2552-793: The Carpathian Mountains , the Danube and the Black sea , corresponding to Wallachia and Moldavia . Nowadays, the Cyrillic writing system is used for various languages across Eurasia, and as the national script in various Slavic, Turkic , Mongolic , Uralic , Caucasian and Iranic -speaking countries in Southeastern Europe , Eastern Europe, the Caucasus , Central, North, and East Asia. The Mediterranean Lingua Franca
2640-628: The European Union . Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan were the official languages of the defunct Latin Union ; and French and Spanish are two of the six official languages of the United Nations . Outside Europe, French , Portuguese and Spanish are spoken and enjoy official status in various countries that emerged from the respective colonial empires . With almost 500 million speakers worldwide, Spanish
2728-533: The French Caribbean , French is the lingua franca in professional sectors and education, even though it is not the native language of the majority. French continues to be used as a lingua franca in certain cultural fields such as cuisine , fashion , and sport . As a consequence of Brexit , French has been increasingly used as a lingua franca in the European Union and its institutions either alongside or, at times, in place of English. German
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2816-507: The Internet . When the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of the British Empire . In the post-colonial period, most of the newly independent nations which had many indigenous languages opted to continue using English as one of their official languages such as Ghana and South Africa . In other former colonies with several official languages such as Singapore and Fiji , English
2904-568: The Latin or Neo-Latin languages , are the languages that are directly descended from Vulgar Latin . They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family . The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are: The Romance languages spread throughout the world owing to the period of European colonialism beginning in
2992-648: The Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th centuries. A world language —a language spoken internationally and by many people—is a language that may function as a global lingua franca. Any language regularly used for communication between people who do not share a native language is a lingua franca. Lingua franca is a functional term, independent of any linguistic history or language structure. Pidgins are therefore lingua francas; creoles and arguably mixed languages may similarly be used for communication between language groups. But lingua franca
3080-593: The Occitan varieties). Since the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, increased sensitivity to the rights of minorities has allowed some of these languages to start recovering their prestige and lost rights. Yet it is unclear whether these political changes will be enough to reverse the decline of minority Romance languages. Between 350 BC and 150 AD, the expansion of the Roman Empire , together with its administrative and educational policies, made Latin
3168-659: The Republic of Moldova , where it is the dominant language and spoken by a majority of the population, but neighboring areas in Serbia ( Vojvodina and the Bor District ), Bulgaria, Hungary, and Ukraine ( Bukovina , Budjak ) and in some villages between the Dniester and Bug rivers. As with Italian, Romanian is spoken outside of its ethnic range by immigrant communities. In Europe, Romanian-speakers form about two percent of
3256-570: The Silk Road , which is why native speakers of Sogdian were employed as translators in Tang China . The Sogdians also ended up circulating spiritual beliefs and texts, including those of Buddhism and Christianity , thanks to their ability to communicate to many people in the region through their native language. Old Church Slavonic , an Eastern South Slavic language, is the first Slavic literary language . Between 9th and 11th century, it
3344-417: The declension system of Latin and, as a result, have SVO sentence structure and make extensive use of prepositions . By most measures, Sardinian and Italian are the least divergent languages from Latin, while French has changed the most. However, all Romance languages are closer to each other than to classical Latin . Documentary evidence about Vulgar Latin for the purposes of comprehensive research
3432-713: The 12th century AD. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bangalore . Latin , through the power of the Roman Republic , became the dominant language in Italy and subsequently throughout the realms of the Roman Empire. Even after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire , Latin was the common language of communication, science, and academia in Europe until well into
3520-482: The 15th century; there are more than 900 million native speakers of Romance languages found worldwide, mainly in the Americas , Europe , and parts of Africa . Portuguese, French and Spanish also have many non-native speakers and are in widespread use as lingua francas . There are also numerous regional Romance languages and dialects. All of the five most widely spoken Romance languages are also official languages of
3608-538: The 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Classical Māori is the retrospective name for the language (formed out of many dialects, albeit all mutually intelligible) of both the North Island and the South Island for
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3696-632: The 800 years before the European settlement of New Zealand . Māori shared a common language that was used for trade, inter- iwi dialogue on marae , and education through wānanga . After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi , Māori language was the lingua franca of the Colony of New Zealand until English superseded it in the 1870s. The description of Māori language as New Zealand's 19th-century lingua franca has been widely accepted. The language
3784-694: The European Union (with France, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain being part of it). The term Romance derives from the Vulgar Latin adverb romanice , "in Roman ", derived from romanicus : for instance, in the expression romanice loqui , "to speak in Roman" (that is, the Latin vernacular ), contrasted with latine loqui , "to speak in Latin" (Medieval Latin, the conservative version of
3872-430: The Portuguese Empire, Africa, South America and Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries. When the Portuguese started exploring the seas of Africa, America, Asia and Oceania, they tried to communicate with the natives by mixing a Portuguese-influenced version of lingua franca with the local languages. When Dutch, English or French ships came to compete with the Portuguese, the crews tried to learn this "broken Portuguese". Through
3960-467: The Romanian and Italian languages, as well as their common Latin origin. The total of 880 million native speakers of Romance languages (ca. 2020) are divided as follows: Catalan is the official language of Andorra . In Spain, it is co-official with Spanish in Catalonia , the Valencian Community (under the name Valencian ), and the Balearic Islands , and it is recognized, but not official, in an area of Aragon known as La Franja . In addition, it
4048-486: The adoption of Latin. To some scholars, this suggests the form of Vulgar Latin that evolved into the Romance languages was around during the time of the Roman Empire (from the end of the first century BC), and was spoken alongside the written Classical Latin which was reserved for official and formal occasions. Other scholars argue that the distinctions are more rightly viewed as indicative of sociolinguistic and register differences normally found within any language. With
4136-520: The border area between Brazil and Uruguay. The Hindustani language , with Hindi and Urdu as dual standard varieties, serves as the lingua franca of Pakistan and Northern India . Many Hindi-speaking North Indian states have adopted the three-language formula in which students are taught: "(a) Hindi (with Sanskrit as part of the composite course); (b) Any other modern Indian language including Urdu and (c) English or any other modern European language." The order in non-Hindi speaking states is: "(a)
4224-405: 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 . 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
4312-414: The canton of Montmédy , almost all of the canton of Carignan and parts of the cantons of Damvillers and Longuyon . It largely corresponds with the now French part of the county of Chiny . The unofficial capital of the Gaume region is Virton . Temperatures in this region are often 1 °C to 3 °C higher than in other parts of the province of Luxembourg because of a distinctive microclimate . Gaume
4400-428: The case of Taiwan, indigenous Formosan languages . Among many Chinese diaspora communities, Cantonese is often used as the lingua franca instead, particularly in Southeast Asia, due to a longer history of immigration and trade networks with southern China, although Mandarin has also been adopted in some circles since the 2000s. Arabic was used as a lingua franca across the Islamic empires, whose sizes necessitated
4488-799: The course of adaptation by subsequent generations. 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. Pre-existing lingua francas are generally widespread, highly developed languages with many native speakers. Conversely, pidgins are very simplified means of communication, containing loose structuring, few grammatical rules, and possessing few or no native speakers. 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. Whereas
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#17327731590564576-462: The criterion of mutual intelligibility can become ambiguous when it comes to determining whether two language varieties belong to the same language or not. The following is a list of groupings of Romance languages, with some languages chosen to exemplify each grouping. Not all languages are listed, and the groupings should not be interpreted as well-separated genetic clades in a tree model . The Romance language most widely spoken natively today
4664-415: The dominant native language in continental Western Europe. Latin also exerted a strong influence in southeastern Britain , the Roman province of Africa , western Germany , Pannonia and the whole Balkans . During the Empire's decline, and after its fragmentation and the collapse of its Western half in the fifth and sixth centuries, the spoken varieties of Latin became more isolated from each other, with
4752-428: The early 19th century the use of Swahili as a lingua franca moved inland with the Arabic ivory and slave traders. It was eventually adopted by Europeans as well during periods of colonization in the area. German colonizers used it as the language of administration in German East Africa , later becoming Tanganyika , which influenced the choice to use it as a national language in what is now independent Tanzania . Swahili
4840-672: The early 20th century, vernacular written Chinese replaced Classical Chinese within China as both the written and spoken lingua franca for speakers of different Chinese dialects, and because of the declining power and cultural influence of China in East Asia, English has since replaced Classical Chinese as the lingua franca in East Asia. Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the Hellenistic culture. Koine Greek (Modern Greek : Ελληνιστική Κοινή , romanized : Ellinistikí Kiní , lit. 'Common Greek'; Greek: [elinistiˈci ciˈni] ), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic, or Biblical Greek,
4928-568: The eighth and ninth centuries Latin gave way to Romance. During the political decline of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, there were large-scale migrations into the empire, and the Latin-speaking world was fragmented into several independent states. Central Europe and the Balkans were occupied by Germanic and Slavic tribes, as well as by Huns . Lingua franca A lingua franca ( / ˌ l ɪ ŋ ɡ w ə ˈ f r æ ŋ k ə / ; lit. ' Frankish tongue ' ; for plurals see § Usage notes ), also known as
5016-448: The end of the colonial domination. As a result, Italian outside Italy and Switzerland is now spoken only as a minority language by immigrant communities in North and South America and Australia . In some former Italian colonies in Africa—namely Libya , Eritrea and Somalia —it is spoken by a few educated people in commerce and government. Romania did not establish a colonial empire. The native range of Romanian includes not only
5104-420: The former being first-listed or only-listed in major dictionaries. The use of lingua francas has existed since antiquity. Akkadian remained the common language of a large part of Western Asia from several earlier empires, until it was supplanted in this role by Aramaic . Sanskrit historically served as a lingua franca throughout the majority of South Asia. The Sanskrit language's historic presence
5192-421: The language of communication between European academics, merchants, and diplomats. With the expansion of Western colonial empires, French became the main language of diplomacy and international relations up until World War II when it was replaced by English due the rise of the United States as the leading superpower . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles
5280-413: The language used in writing and formal contexts or as a lingua franca), and with barbarice loqui , "to speak in Barbarian " (the non-Latin languages of the peoples living outside the Roman Empire). From this adverb the noun romance originated, which applied initially to anything written romanice , or "in the Roman vernacular". Most of the Romance-speaking area in Europe has traditionally been
5368-454: The lingua franca for most of ancient Tamilakam and Sri Lanka . John Guy states that Tamil was also the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. The language and its dialects were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century AD. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in the southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until
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#17327731590565456-427: The local language and using it preferably in daily communication. In Central European countries that were members of the Warsaw Pact , where Russian was only a political language used in international communication and where there was no Russian minority, the Russian language practically does not exist, and in schools it was replaced by English as the primary foreign language. Portuguese served as lingua franca in
5544-472: The local language. In the European Union , the use of English as a lingua franca has led researchers to investigate whether a Euro English dialect has emerged. In the fields of technology and science, English emerged as a lingua franca in the 20th century. 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
5632-403: The main language of government and education and is spoken by the vast majority of the population. 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
5720-433: The main royal courts of Europe, and among intellectuals. This lasted from the 14th century to the end of the 16th, when French replaced Italian as the usual lingua franca in northern Europe. Italian musical terms, in particular dynamic and tempo notations, have continued in use to the present day. Classical Quechua is either of two historical forms of Quechua , the exact relationship and degree of closeness between which
5808-565: The major language of the state or region; (b) Hindi; (c) Any other modern Indian language including Urdu but excluding (a) and (b) above; and (d) English or any other modern European language." Hindi has also emerged as a lingua franca in Arunachal Pradesh , a linguistically diverse state in Northeast India. It is estimated that nine-tenths of the state's population knows Hindi. Urdu is the lingua franca of Pakistan and had gained significant influence amongst its people, administration and education. While it shares official status with English, Urdu
5896-434: The majority of the population. 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. It is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world and is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations . French is sometimes regarded as the first global lingua franca, having supplanted Latin as
5984-414: The many indigenous languages spoken in their territory. Notably, in most Francophone West and Central African countries, French has transitioned from being only a lingua franca to the native language among some communities, mostly in urban areas or among the elite class. In other regions such as the French-speaking countries of the Maghreb ( Algeria , Tunisia , Morocco , and Mauritania ) and parts of
6072-423: The most native speakers of any Romance language. In Africa it is one of the official languages of Equatorial Guinea . Spanish was one of the official languages in the Philippines in Southeast Asia until 1973. In the 1987 constitution, Spanish was removed as an official language (replaced by English), and was listed as an optional/voluntary language along with Arabic. It is currently spoken by a minority and taught in
6160-409: The nearby Arab countries, Eritrean emigrants are contributing to Arabic becoming a lingua franca in the region by coming back to their homelands having picked up the Arabic language. Russian is in use and widely understood in Central Asia and the Caucasus , areas formerly part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Its use remains prevalent in many post-Soviet states . Russian has some presence as
6248-475: The northern districts are not in Gaume (as Suxy or Hachy ). Historically, the area around Montmédy , Carignan and Charency-Vezin , that was ceded to France by Spain in 1659, is also part of Gaume. Therefore, strictly speaking, the southern border of the region is not the border with France. The French part of the Gaume, named Gaume française by some, is part of a greater cluster of former Luxembourgish territories called French Luxembourg. It consists of
6336-624: The official languages and government services in French theoretically mandated to be provided nationwide. In parts of the Caribbean, such as Haiti , French has official status, but most people speak creoles such as Haitian Creole as their native language. French also has official status in much of Africa, with relatively few native speakers but larger numbers of second language speakers. Although Italy also had some colonial possessions before World War II , its language did not remain official after
6424-584: The other continents to such an extent that about two-thirds of all Romance language speakers today live outside Europe. Despite other influences (e.g. substratum from pre-Roman languages, especially Continental Celtic languages ; and superstratum from later Germanic or Slavic invasions), the phonology , morphology , and lexicon of all Romance languages consist mainly of evolved forms of Vulgar Latin. However, some notable differences exist between today's Romance languages and their Roman ancestor. With only one or two exceptions, Romance languages have lost
6512-419: The particular language) was first recorded in English during the 1670s, although an even earlier example of the use of it in English is attested from 1632, where it is also referred to as "Bastard Spanish". The term is well established in its naturalization to English and so major dictionaries do not italicize it as a "foreign" term. Its plurals in English are lingua francas and linguae francae , with
6600-546: The population in Italy , Spain , and Portugal . Romanian is also spoken in Israel by Romanian Jews, where it is the native language of five percent of the population, and is spoken by many more as a secondary language. The Aromanian language is spoken today by Aromanians in Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, and Greece. Flavio Biondo was the first scholar to have observed (in 1435) linguistic affinities between
6688-544: The prestige language of politics, trade, education, diplomacy, and military in early modern Europe and later spreading around the world with the establishment of the French colonial empire . With France emerging as the leading political, economic, and cultural power of Europe in the 16th century, the language was adopted by royal courts throughout the continent, including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Russia, and as
6776-554: The rise of the Roman Empire, spoken Latin spread first throughout Italy and then through southern , western , central , and southeastern Europe , and northern Africa along parts of western Asia . Latin reached a stage when innovations became generalised around the sixth and seventh centuries. After that time and within two hundred years, it became a dead language since "the Romanized people of Europe could no longer understand texts that were read aloud or recited to them." By
6864-434: The school curriculum. Portuguese, in its original homeland, Portugal , is spoken by almost the entire population of 10 million. As the official language of Brazil , it is spoken by more than 200 million people, as well as in neighboring parts of eastern Paraguay and northern Uruguay . This accounts for slightly more than half the population of South America, making Portuguese the most spoken official Romance language in
6952-409: The shift in the meaning of Lingua Franca from a single proper noun to a common noun encompassing a large class of pidgin languages. As recently as the late 20th century, some restricted the use of the generic term to mean only mixed languages that are used as vehicular languages, its original meaning. Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary states that the term Lingua Franca (as the name of
7040-451: The term in literature, lingua franca has come to be interpreted as a general term for pidgins, creoles, and some or all forms of vehicular languages. This transition in meaning has been attributed to the idea that pidgin languages only became widely known from the 16th century on due to European colonization of continents such as The Americas, Africa, and Asia. During this time, the need for a term to address these pidgin languages arose, hence
7128-469: The western dialects coming under heavy Germanic influence (the Goths and Franks in particular) and the eastern dialects coming under Slavic influence. The dialects diverged from Latin at an accelerated rate and eventually evolved into a continuum of recognizably different typologies. The colonial empires established by Portugal , Spain , and France from the fifteenth century onward spread their languages to
7216-436: The world throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages" facilitated trade), but also for cultural, religious, diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities. The term is taken from the medieval Mediterranean Lingua Franca , a Romance -based pidgin language used especially by traders in
7304-556: Was initially vital for all European and Chinese migrants in New Zealand to learn, as Māori formed a majority of the population, owned nearly all the country's land and dominated the economy until the 1860s. Discriminatory laws such as the Native Schools Act 1867 contributed to the demise of Māori language as a lingua franca. Sogdian was used to facilitate trade between those who spoke different languages along
7392-529: Was largely based on Italian and Provençal . This language was spoken from the 11th to 19th centuries around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in the European commercial empires of Italian cities ( Genoa , Venice, Florence , Milan, Pisa , Siena ) and in trading ports located throughout the eastern Mediterranean rim. During the Renaissance , standard Italian was spoken as a language of culture in
7480-775: Was originally used at both schools, though the Cyrillic script was developed early on at the Preslav Literary School , where it superseded Glagolitic as the official script in Bulgaria in 893. Old Church Slavonic spread to other South-Eastern, Central, and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notably Croatia , Serbia , Bohemia , Lesser Poland , and principalities of the Kievan Rus' while retaining characteristically South Slavic linguistic features. It spread also to not completely Slavic territories between
7568-636: Was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period , the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire . It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. Old Tamil was once
7656-501: Was the lingua franca of a great part of the predominantly Slavic states and populations in Southeast and Eastern Europe , in liturgy and church organization, culture, literature, education and diplomacy, as an Official language and National language in the case of Bulgaria . It was the first national and also international Slavic literary language (autonym словѣ́ньскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ , slověnĭskŭ językŭ ). The Glagolitic alphabet
7744-401: Was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. Nevertheless, it remains the second most used language in international affairs and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations . As a legacy of French and Belgian colonial rule, most former colonies of these countries maintain French as an official language or lingua franca due to
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