I know what a loan word is. Lingua Franca isn't one. It began to be used back in the 18th century in Europe when everyone who was educated learnt French as France was the dominant European culture at the time. Before that, everyone learnt Latin and Greek so that scholars and philosophers and astronomers and all the rest of the educated classes could speak and write to each other. A treatise could be written in Latin and go all around the world.
That's how English is being used now. There's no need for a French word to describe it.
I wish I was a glow worm A glow worm's never glum Cos how can you be grumpy When the sun shines out your bum!
It wasn't a competition. I just dislike people assuming I'm thick and don't know what I'm on about. And if that's not what you did, then apologies. It just read that way.
I wish I was a glow worm A glow worm's never glum Cos how can you be grumpy When the sun shines out your bum!
You're talking at cross purposes, Laura. B3 I think is only objecting to your translation of 'lingua franca' as 'common language', not to the notion that English IS the lingua franca of the world (which is what she said in the first place). Lingua franca is - by our common usage of the term - not the first language of either speaker. A common language could be the first language of both.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Ohhh.... I don't think we are going to agree on this. I don't see it that way at all in this context. And I still think it's ridiculous to use French when English is the common language. But whatever. Not important in the great scheme of things.
I wish I was a glow worm A glow worm's never glum Cos how can you be grumpy When the sun shines out your bum!
Linga franca is technically something more akin to Esperanto than English. A constructed language designed to be universally understood rather than just using an existing language as a common language. Lingua franca is a common language but there's more to it than that.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I speak English and French every day and sometimes the only good word for something is the French one but, generally speaking, English has more variety, more sources, more accuracy and greater clarity and you can say something in 10 words that would take a French speaker 10 sentences. This doesn't just apply to science or technology either.
I am often told I am very direct because I speak similarly in French, being a native English speaker and all. I just ask people to be tolerant of my franglais and then they have a laugh and settle down.
PS - I was joking about "pidgin".
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
They've eaten all my elderberries now. I wonder whose car they've dropped the rainbow guano on this year. That's one kind of recycling I can do without! One year, late for work and a 3" deposit on the door handle of my car! Amazing accuracy, but not as good as the crow who managed to hit my husband's shoulder while he was sitting in the car with the window open
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That's how English is being used now. There's no need for a French word to describe it.
A glow worm's never glum
Cos how can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out your bum!
A glow worm's never glum
Cos how can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out your bum!
Lingua franca is - by our common usage of the term - not the first language of either speaker. A common language could be the first language of both.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
A glow worm's never glum
Cos how can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out your bum!
I am often told I am very direct because I speak similarly in French, being a native English speaker and all. I just ask people to be tolerant of my franglais and then they have a laugh and settle down.
PS - I was joking about "pidgin".
That's one kind of recycling I can do without!
One year, late for work and a 3" deposit on the door handle of my car! Amazing accuracy, but not as good as the crow who managed to hit my husband's shoulder while he was sitting in the car with the window open
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border