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115-582: Northern Ngbandi is the lexical source of the trade language Sango , which has as many native speakers as Ngbandi and which is used as a second language by millions more in the CAR. A variety of Ngbandi may have been spoken further east, in the DRC villages of Kazibati and Mongoba near Uganda, until the late 20th century, but this is uncertain. Yakoma , with a central position on the Ubangi River that divides

230-614: A lingua franca , used to facilitate communication across a large area. However, vernaculars usually carry covert prestige among their native speakers, in showcasing group identity or sub-culture affiliation. As a border case, a nonstandard dialect may even have its own written form, though it could then be assumed that the orthography is unstable, inconsistent, or unsanctioned by powerful institutions, like that of government or education. The most salient instance of nonstandard dialects in writing would likely be nonstandard phonemic spelling of reported speech in literature or poetry (e.g.,

345-426: 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

460-594: A lingua franca until the 17th century, when grammarians began to debate the creation of an ideal language. Before 1550 as a conventional date, "supraregional compromises" were used in printed works, such as the one published by Valentin Ickelsamer ( Ein Teutsche Grammatica ) 1534. Books published in one of these artificial variants began to increase in frequency, replacing the Latin then in use. After 1550

575-990: A liturgical language , a specialized use of a former lingua franca . For example, until the 1960s, the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church was generally celebrated in Latin rather than in vernaculars. The Coptic Church still holds liturgies in Coptic , not Arabic. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church holds liturgies in Ge'ez , but parts of the Mass are read in Amharic . Similarly, in Hindu culture, traditionally religious or scholarly works were written in Sanskrit (long after its use as

690-785: 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

805-425: A vernacular , vernacular dialect , nonstandard dialect , etc. and is typically its speakers' native variety . Regardless of any such stigma, all nonstandard dialects are full-fledged varieties of language with their own consistent grammatical structure, sound system , body of vocabulary, etc. Like any native language variety, a vernacular has an internally coherent system of grammar . It may be associated with

920-492: A Romance language was a book written in manuscript form by Leon Battista Alberti between 1437 and 1441 and entitled Grammatica della lingua toscana , "Grammar of the Tuscan Language". In it Alberti sought to demonstrate that the vernacular – here Tuscan, known today as modern Italian – was every bit as structured as Latin. He did so by mapping vernacular structures onto Latin. The book was never printed until 1908. It

1035-413: A Zande language, is spoken near Gbayi. Perhaps not coincidentally, Kpatili also happens to be the name of a spurious Zande language for which there is no linguistic data. The phonology consists of the following: Trade language 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

1150-525: 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

1265-410: A conversational form; Ferguson had in mind a literary language. For example, a lecture is delivered in a different variety than ordinary conversation. Ferguson's own example was classical and spoken Arabic, but the analogy between Vulgar Latin and Classical Latin is of the same type. Excluding the upper-class and lower-class register aspects of the two variants, Classical Latin was a literary language;

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1380-546: A few different languages; some examples of languages and regional accents (and/or dialects) within Great Britain include Scotland ( Scottish Gaelic ), Northumbria , Yorkshire , Wales ( Welsh ), the Isle of Man ( Manx ), Devon , and Cornwall ( Cornish ). Being the language of a maritime power, English was (of necessity) formed from elements of many different languages. Standardisation has been an ongoing issue. Even in

1495-710: A general plea for mother-tongue education in England: The first part of the elementary , published in 1582, by Richard Mulcaster . In 1586, William Bullokar wrote the first English grammar to be written in English, the Pamphlet for Grammar . This was followed by Bref Grammar , in that same year. Previously he had written the Booke at Large for the Amendment of Orthography for English Speech (1580), but his orthography

1610-531: 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,

1725-436: A joint publication, in 1584 by De Eglantier and the rhetoric society of Amsterdam; this was to be the first comprehensive Dutch grammar, Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst/ ófte Vant spellen ende eyghenscap des Nederduitschen taals . Hendrick Laurenszoon Spieghel was a major contributor, with others contributing as well. Modern English is considered to have begun at a conventional date of about 1550, most notably at

1840-515: A language as coherent, complex, and complete systems—even nonstandard varieties. A dialect or language variety that is a vernacular may not have historically benefited from the institutional support or sanction that a standard dialect has. According to another definition, a vernacular is a language that has not developed a standard variety , undergone codification , or established a literary tradition. Vernacular may vary from overtly prestigious speech varieties in different ways, in that

1955-594: A linguistic phenomenon termed diglossia ("split tongue", on the model of the genetic anomaly ). In it, the language is bifurcated: the speaker learns two forms of the language and ordinarily uses one but under special circumstances uses the other. The one most frequently used is the low (L) variant, equivalent to the vernacular, while the special variant is the high (H). The concept was introduced to linguistics by Charles A. Ferguson (1959), but Ferguson explicitly excluded variants as divergent as dialects or different languages or as similar as styles or registers. It must not be

2070-855: 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

2185-496: 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

2300-558: A particular set of vocabulary , and spoken using a variety of accents , styles , and registers . As American linguist John McWhorter describes about a number of dialects spoken in the American South in earlier U.S. history, including older African-American Vernacular English , "the often nonstandard speech of Southern white planters , nonstandard British dialects of indentured servants, and West Indian patois , [...] were non standard but not sub standard." In other words,

2415-511: A phonetical and morphological overview of Spanish for nonnative speakers. The Grammar Books of the Master-poets ( Welsh : Gramadegau'r Penceirddiaid ) are considered to have been composed in the early fourteenth century, and are present in manuscripts from soon after. These tractates draw on the traditions of the Latin grammars of Donatus and Priscianus and also on the teaching of the professional Welsh poets. The tradition of grammars of

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2530-664: 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

2645-498: 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

2760-409: A slave born in the house rather than abroad. The figurative meaning was broadened from the diminutive extended words vernaculus, vernacula . Varro , the classical Latin grammarian, used the term vocabula vernacula , "termes de la langue nationale" or "vocabulary of the national language" as opposed to foreign words. In general linguistics , a vernacular is contrasted with a lingua franca ,

2875-588: A spoken language) or in Tamil in Tamil country. Sanskrit was a lingua franca among the non-Indo-European languages of the Indian subcontinent and became more of one as the spoken languages, or prakrits , began to diverge from it in different regions. With the rise of the bhakti movement from the 12th century onwards, religious works were created in other languages: Hindi , Kannada , Telugu and many others. For example,

2990-745: A third-party language in which persons speaking different vernaculars not understood by each other may communicate. For instance, in Western Europe until the 17th century, most scholarly works had been written in Latin , which was serving as a lingua franca. Works written in Romance languages are said to be in the vernacular. The Divina Commedia , the Cantar de Mio Cid , and The Song of Roland are examples of early vernacular literature in Italian, Spanish, and French, respectively. In Europe, Latin

3105-591: 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

3220-607: 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

3335-710: 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

3450-455: Is a general but far from uniform consensus among the leading scholars about what should or should not be said in standard English; but for every rule, examples from famous English writers can be found that break it. Uniformity of spoken English never existed and does not exist now, but usages do exist, which must be learnt by the speakers, and do not conform to prescriptive rules. Usages have been documented not by prescriptive grammars, which on

3565-486: Is a grammar of the Irish language which is thought to date back as far as the 7th century: the earliest surviving manuscripts are 12th-century. Italian appears before standardization as the lingua Italica of Isidore and the lingua vulgaris of subsequent medieval writers. Documents of mixed Latin and Italian are known from the 12th century, which appears to be the start of writing in Italian. The first known grammar of

Ngbandi language - Misplaced Pages Continue

3680-569: 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

3795-482: 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

3910-478: Is crucial to determining its intended sense. In variation theory, pioneered by William Labov , language is a large set of styles or registers from which the speaker selects according to the social setting of the moment. The vernacular is "the least self-conscious style of people in a relaxed conversation", or "the most basic style"; that is, casual varieties used spontaneously rather than self-consciously, informal talk used in intimate situations. In other contexts

4025-518: Is currently one of the national languages and it is taught in schools and universities in several East African countries, thus prompting it to be regarded as a modern-day lingua franca by many people in the region. Several Pan-African writers and politicians have unsuccessfully called for Swahili to become the lingua franca of Africa as a means of unifying the African continent and overcoming the legacy of colonialism. Vernacular Vernacular

4140-569: 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

4255-467: 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

4370-400: Is the ordinary, informal, spoken form of language, particularly when perceived as having lower social status or less prestige than standard language , which is more codified , institutionally promoted, literary , or formal. More narrowly, a particular language variety that does not hold a widespread high-status perception, and sometimes even carries social stigma , is also called

4485-526: 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

4600-519: 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

4715-766: 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

Ngbandi language - Misplaced Pages Continue

4830-793: 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

4945-596: 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

5060-738: The Hetruscane and Mesapian , whereof though there be some Records yet extant; yet there are none alive that can understand them: The Oscan , the Sabin and Tusculan, are thought to be but Dialects to these. Here, vernacular, mother language and dialect are in use in a modern sense. According to Merriam-Webster , "vernacular" was brought into the English language as early as 1601 from the Latin vernaculus ("native") which had been in figurative use in Classical Latin as "national" and "domestic", having originally been derived from verna ,

5175-507: 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

5290-648: 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

5405-683: The Ramayana , one of Hinduism's sacred epics in Sanskrit, had vernacular versions such as Ranganadha Ramayanam composed in Telugu by Gona Buddha Reddy in the 15th century; and Ramacharitamanasa , a Awadhi version of the Ramayana by the 16th-century poet Tulsidas . These circumstances are a contrast between a vernacular and language variant used by the same speakers. According to one school of linguistic thought, all such variants are examples of

5520-570: 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

5635-638: The Southern Netherlands came under the dominion of Spain, then of Austria (1713) and of France (1794). The Congress of Vienna created the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815 from which southern Netherlands (being Catholic) seceded in 1830 to form the Kingdom of Belgium , which was confirmed in 1839 by the Treaty of London . As a result of this political instability no standard Dutch

5750-805: The Welsh Language developed from these through the Middle Ages and to the Renaissance. A dictionary is to be distinguished from a glossary . Although numerous glossaries publishing vernacular words had long been in existence, such as the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville , which listed many Spanish words, the first vernacular dictionaries emerged together with vernacular grammars. Glossaries in Dutch began about 1470 AD leading eventually to two Dutch dictionaries : Shortly after (1579)

5865-512: The " rederijkerskamers " (learned, literary societies founded throughout Flanders and Holland from the 1420s onward) attempted to impose a Latin structure on Dutch, on the presumption that Latin grammar had a "universal character". However, in 1559, John III van de Werve, Lord of Hovorst published his grammar Den schat der Duytsscher Talen in Dutch; Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert ( Eenen nieuwen ABC of Materi-boeck ) followed five years after, in 1564. The Latinizing tendency changed course, with

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5980-827: 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

6095-454: The 1516 Regole grammaticali della volgar lingua of Giovanni Francesco Fortunio and the 1525 Prose della vulgar lingua of Pietro Bembo . In those works the authors strove to establish a dialect that would qualify for becoming the Italian national language. The first grammar in a vernacular language in western Europe was published in Toulouse in 1327. Known as the Leys d'amor and written by Guilhèm Molinièr, an advocate of Toulouse, it

6210-438: The 15th century, concurrent with the rise of Castile as an international power. The first Spanish grammar by Antonio de Nebrija ( Tratado de gramática sobre la lengua Castellana , 1492) was divided into parts for native and nonnative speakers, pursuing a different purpose in each. Books 1–4 describe the Spanish language grammatically, in order to facilitate the study of Latin for its Spanish-speaking readers. Book 5 contains

6325-406: The 1710s, due to the military power of Louis XIV of France . Certain languages have both a classical form and various vernacular forms, with two widely used examples being Arabic and Chinese: see Varieties of Arabic and Chinese language . In the 1920s, due to the May Fourth Movement , Classical Chinese was replaced by written vernacular Chinese . The vernacular is also often contrasted with

6440-416: 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

6555-473: 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

6670-417: The Anglo-Norman domains in both northwestern France and Britain, English scholars retained an interest in the fate of French as well as of English. Some of the numerous 16th-century surviving grammars are: The development of a standard German was impeded by political disunity and strong local traditions until the invention of printing made possible a " High German -based book language". This literary language

6785-407: The CAR from the DRC, has a high degree of intelligibility with all other varieties of Ngbandi, though as with any dialect continuum, it does not follow that more distant varieties are necessarily as intelligible with each other as they are with Yakoma. Gbayi or Kpatiri is a divergent Ngbandic language. Gbayi had likely been adopted by people who had formerly spoken a Zande language . Nzakara ,

6900-400: The Latin did spread all over that Country; the Calabrian , and Apulian spoke Greek, whereof some Relics are to be found to this day ; but it was an adventitious, no Mother-Language to them: 'tis confess'd that Latium it self, and all the Territories about Rome, had the Latin for its maternal and common first vernacular Tongue; but Tuscany and Liguria had others quite discrepant, viz.

7015-430: 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

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7130-447: The adjective "nonstandard" should not be taken to mean that these various dialects were intrinsically incorrect, less logical, or otherwise inferior, only that they were not the socially perceived norm or mainstream considered prestigious or appropriate for public speech; however, nonstandard dialects are indeed often stigmatized as such, due to socially-induced post-hoc rationalization. Again, however, linguistics regards all varieties of

7245-403: The age of modern communications and mass media, according to one study, "… although the Received Pronunciation of Standard English has been heard constantly on radio and then television for over 60 years, only 3 to 5% of the population of Britain actually speaks RP … new brands of English have been springing up even in recent times ...." What the vernacular would be in this case is a moot point: "…

7360-520: 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)

7475-405: 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

7590-428: 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

7705-419: The case of the English language , while it has become common thought to assume that nonstandard varieties should not be taught, there has been evidence to prove that teaching nonstandard dialects in the classroom can encourage some children to learn English. The first known usage of the word "vernacular" in English is not recent. In 1688, James Howell wrote: Concerning Italy, doubtless there were divers before

7820-427: The concept still further by proposing that multiple H exist in society from which the users can select for various purposes. The definition of an H is intermediate between Ferguson's and Fishman's. Realizing the inappropriateness of the term diglossia (only two) to his concept, he proposes the term broad diglossia. Within sociolinguistics , the term "vernacular" has been applied to several concepts. Context, therefore,

7935-799: 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

8050-428: 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

8165-672: 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,

8280-675: The end of the Great Vowel Shift . It was created by the infusion of Old French into Old English , after the Norman conquest of 1066 AD, and of Latin at the instigation of the clerical administration. While present-day English speakers may be able to read Middle English authors (such as Geoffrey Chaucer ), Old English is much more difficult. Middle English is known for its alternative spellings and pronunciations. The British Isles, although geographically limited, have always supported populations of widely-varied dialects, as well as

8395-420: 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

8510-487: 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

8625-454: 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

8740-486: 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

8855-591: 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

8970-537: 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

9085-433: 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

9200-697: 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

9315-434: 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

9430-533: 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

9545-403: The massive dictionary of Samuel Johnson . French (as Old French ) emerged as a Gallo-Romance language from Colloquial Latin during late antiquity . The written language is known from at least as early as the 9th century. That language contained many forms still identifiable as Latin. Interest in standardizing French began in the 16th century. Because of the Norman conquest of England and

9660-584: The midlands. Chaucer wrote in an early East Midland style; John Wycliffe translated the New Testament into it, and William Caxton , the first English printer, wrote in it. Caxton is considered the first modern English author. The first printed book in England was Chaucer's Canterbury Tales , published by Caxton in 1476. The first English grammars were written in Latin , with some in French , after

9775-586: 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

9890-419: 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

10005-440: The people spoke Vulgar Latin as a vernacular. Joshua Fishman redefined the concept in 1964 to include everything Ferguson had excluded. Fishman allowed both different languages and dialects and also different styles and registers as the H variants. The essential contrast between them was that they be "functionally differentiated"; that is, H must be used for special purposes, such as a liturgical or sacred language. Fasold expanded

10120-492: 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

10235-563: The publications of Jamaican poet Linton Kwesi Johnson ) where it is sometimes described as eye dialect . Nonstandard dialects have been used in classic literature throughout history. One famous example of this is Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . This classic piece of literature, commonly taught in schools in the U.S., includes dialogue from various characters in their own native vernaculars (including representations of Older Southern American English and African-American English ), which are not written in standard English. In

10350-409: 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

10465-406: The speaker does conscious work to select the appropriate variations. The one they can use without this effort is the first form of speech acquired. In another theory, the vernacular language is opposed to the standard language . The non-standard varieties thus defined are dialects, which are to be identified as complexes of factors: "social class, region, ethnicity, situation, and so forth". Both

10580-521: The spread of the French national language into German-speaking territories assisted by the efforts of the French Academy. With so many linguists moving in the same direction, a standard German ( hochdeutsche Schriftsprache ) did evolve without the assistance of a language academy. Its precise origin, the major constituents of its features, remains uncertainly known and debatable. Latin prevailed as

10695-453: The standard and non-standard languages have dialects, but in contrast to the standard language, the non-standard language has "socially disfavored" structures. The standard language is primarily written (in traditional print media), whereas the non-standard language is spoken. An example of a vernacular dialect is African American Vernacular English . A vernacular is not a real language but is "an abstract set of norms". Vernaculars acquired

10810-540: The standardisation of English has been in progress for many centuries." Modern English came into being as the standard Middle English (i.e., as the preferred dialect of the monarch, court and administration). That dialect was of the East Midland, which had spread to London , where the king resided and from which he ruled. It contained Danish forms not often used in the north or south, as the Danes had settled heavily in

10925-403: The status of official languages through metalinguistic publications. Between 1437 and 1586, the first reference grammars of Italian , Spanish , French , Dutch , German and English were written, though not always immediately published. It is to be understood that the first precursors of those languages preceded their standardization by up to several hundred years. In the 16th century,

11040-721: The supraregional ideal broadened to a universal intent to create a national language from Early New High German by deliberately ignoring regional forms of speech, which practice was considered to be a form of purification parallel to the ideal of purifying religion in Protestantism . In 1617, the Fruitbearing Society , a language club, was formed in Weimar in imitation of the Accademia della Crusca in Italy. It

11155-451: 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

11270-424: The vernacular can be a distinct stylistic register , a regional dialect , a sociolect , or an independent language. Vernacular is a term for a type of speech variety , generally used to refer to a local language or dialect, as distinct from what is seen as a standard language. The vernacular is contrasted with higher-prestige forms of language, such as national , literary , liturgical or scientific idiom, or

11385-481: The vernacular was Galileo , writing in Italian c.  1600 , though some of his works remained in Latin. A later example is Isaac Newton , whose 1687 Principia was in Latin, but whose 1704 Opticks was in English. Latin continues to be used in certain fields of science, notably binomial nomenclature in biology, while other fields such as mathematics use vernacular; see scientific nomenclature for details. In diplomacy, French displaced Latin in Europe in

11500-436: 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

11615-532: Was defined (even though much in demand and recommended as an ideal) until after World War II . Currently the Dutch Language Union , an international treaty organization founded in 1980, supports a standard Dutch in the Netherlands, while Afrikaans is regulated by Die Taalkommissie founded in 1909. Standard English remains a quasi-fictional ideal, despite the numerous private organizations publishing prescriptive rules for it. No language academy

11730-527: Was ever established or espoused by any government past or present in the English-speaking world. In practice the British monarchy and its administrations established an ideal of what good English should be considered to be, and this in turn was based on the teachings of the major universities, such as Cambridge University and Oxford University , which relied on the scholars whom they hired. There

11845-556: 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

11960-529: 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

12075-612: Was not generally accepted and was soon supplanted, thus his grammar shared a similar fate. Other grammars in English followed rapidly; Paul Greaves' Grammatica Anglicana (1594), Alexander Hume 's Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britain Tongue (1617), and many others. Over the succeeding decades, many literary figures turned a hand to grammar in English; Alexander Gill , Ben Jonson , Joshua Poole, John Wallis , Jeremiah Wharton, James Howell , Thomas Lye, Christopher Cooper , William Lily , John Colet and more, all leading to

12190-583: Was not generally known, but it was known, as an inventory of the library of Lorenzo de'Medici lists it under the title Regule lingue florentine ("Rules of the Florentine language"). The only known manuscript copy, however, is included in the codex , Reginense Latino 1370, located at Rome in the Vatican library . It is therefore called the Grammatichetta vaticana. More influential perhaps were

12305-592: Was not identical to any specific variety of German. The first grammar evolved from pedagogical works that also tried to create a uniform standard from the many regional dialects for various reasons. Religious leaders wished to create a sacred language for Protestantism that would be parallel to the use of Latin for the Roman Catholic Church . Various administrations wished to create a civil service, or chancery, language that would be useful in more than one locality. And finally, nationalists wished to counter

12420-466: Was one of many such clubs; however, none became a national academy. In 1618–1619 Johannes Kromayer wrote the first all-German grammar. In 1641 Justin Georg Schottel in teutsche Sprachkunst presented the standard language as an artificial one. By the time of his work of 1663, ausführliche Arbeit von der teutschen Haubt-Sprache , the standard language was well established. Auraicept na n-Éces

12535-775: 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

12650-581: Was published in order to codify the use of the Occitan language in poetry competitions organized by the company of the Gai Saber in both grammar and rhetorical ways. Chronologically, Spanish (more accurately, lengua castellana ) has a development similar to that of Italian. There was some vocabulary in Isidore of Seville, with traces afterward, writing from about the 12th century; standardisation began in

12765-636: 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

12880-501: 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

12995-506: Was used at Tridentine Mass until the Second Vatican Council of 1965. Certain groups, notably Traditionalist Catholics , continue to practice Latin Mass . In Eastern Orthodox Church , four Gospels translated to vernacular Ukrainian language in 1561 are known as Peresopnytsia Gospel . In India, the 12th century Bhakti movement led to the translation of Sanskrit texts to the vernacular. In science, an early user of

13110-1430: Was used widely instead of vernacular languages in varying forms until c.  1701 , in its latter stage as Neo-Latin . In religion, Protestantism was a driving force in the use of the vernacular in Christian Europe, the Bible having been translated from Latin into vernacular languages with such works as the Bible in Dutch: published in 1526 by Jacob van Liesvelt ; Bible in French: published in 1528 by Jacques Lefevre d'Étaples (or Faber Stapulensis); German Luther Bible in 1534 ( New Testament 1522); Bible in Spanish: published in Basel in 1569 by Casiodoro de Reina (Biblia del Oso); Bible in Czech: Bible of Kralice, printed between 1579 and 1593; Bible in English: King James Bible , published in 1611; Bible in Slovene, published in 1584 by Jurij Dalmatin. In Catholicism , vernacular bibles were later provided, but Latin

13225-401: 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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