HOW TO PRONOUNCE
Lingua Franca
/ˈlɪŋ.ɡwə ˈfɹæŋ.kə/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does Lingua Franca mean?
noun
- A common language used by people of diverse backgrounds to communicate with one another, often a basic form of speech with simplified grammar, particularly, one that is not the first language of any of its speakers.
More meanings (1)
proper noun
- (archaic, historical) Sabir, the Italian-based pidgin that served as a common language of Mediterranean trade around the 11th-19th centuries.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈlɪŋ.ɡwə ˈfɹæŋ.kə/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
We conversed in a kind of LINGUA FRANCA.
After supper this chatty and entertaining gentleman brings his wife, a rotund, motherly-looking person, to see the bicycle; she is a Levantine Greek, and besides her own lingua franca, her husband has improved her education to the extent of a smattering of rather misleading English.
More book examples (3)
The language most widely understood by those to whom it is not native is the Kayan; but since the recent spread of trade through large areas under the protection of the European governments, a simplified form of the Malay language has been rapidly establishing itself as the LINGUA FRANCA of the whole country.
“I asked you, my children,” said the Prior, raising his voice, and using the lingua Franca, or mixed language, in which the Norman and Saxon races conversed with each other, “if there be in this neighbourhood any good man, who, for the love of God, and devotion to Mother Church, will give two of her humblest servants, with their train, a night’s hospitality and refreshment?”
There were several of his priests and lawyers present (as I conjectured by their habits), who were commanded to address themselves to me; and I spoke to them in as many languages as I had the least smattering of, which were High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca, but all to no purpose.