Lingua francas

Lingua francas, pidgins and creoles

Among the languages of the world there are a few often assigned to a somewhat marginal position: the various lingua francas, pidgins, and creoles. To the best of our knowledge all have existed since time immemorial, but, in comparison with what we know about many ‘fully fledged’ languages, we know comparatively little about them.

Fortunately, in recent years such attitudes have changed and, as serious attention has been given to pidgins and creoles, linguists have discovered many interesting characteristics about them.

Lingua francas

People who speak different languages who are forced into contact with each other must find some way of communicating, a lingua franca.

According to Samarin there are four other terms which.h can be found to describe much the same phenomenon: a trade language (e.g., Hausa in West Africa or Swahili in East Africa); a contact language (e.g., Greek koiné in the Ancient World); an international language (e.g., English throughout much of our contemporary world); and an auxiliary language (e.g., Esperanto or Basic English). They usually develop as a consequence of population migration (forced or voluntary) or for purposes of trade. Still another kind of lingua franca is a mixed language. A lingua franca can be spoken in a variety of ways. Although both Greek koiné and Vulgar Latin served at different times as lingua francas in the Ancient World, neither was a homogeneous entity. Not only were they spoken differently in different places, but individual speakers varied widely in their ability to use the languages.