ANoDyNoS

Common language / Lingua franca

The problem is that while all Lingua francas may be common languages - by no means all common languages are lingua francas. ALL languages, whether lingua framcas or not, are common languages, at least every now and then. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 10:34, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

I am no expert of the subject. Can you please provide an example of a widely used Common Language that IS NOT a Lingua Franca, now or in the past ? Perhaps we need to augment the text later on and narrow it down as "a widely accepted common language is a lingua franca".

ANoDyNoS (talk) 16:13, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Have a look at the talk page for the article (to which I am copying these remarks). The point is that "widely used" bit. Reread the current text, which I already changed, and which I think makes it clearer. (May well have another go at this when I've thought about it for a bit.) By no means all communication using a common language involves a lingua franca. "Official" French, to take a very good example, is a vernacular language in many parts of France - and a lingua franca in other parts of France (and other parts of the world, for instance parts of West Africa and South-East Asia) where French is not the local vernacular at all. But it is also used casually between people who simply happen not to have another common language (see the example on the talk page). If we were to count this kind of use then ALL languages are lingua francas (at least now and then) - which makes the term pointless. The term "common language" describes a situation rather than a specifc language - someone once said that the "English and the Americans are divided by a common language". --Soundofmusicals (talk) 23:09, 19 February 2014 (UTC)