Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:14:19.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - The Emergence of Lingua Francas

from Part Three - Lingua Francas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

By
Nicholas Ostler
Edited by
Salikoko Mufwene  and
Anna Maria Escobar
Salikoko Mufwene
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Anna Maria Escobar
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Get access

Summary

This chapter concerns the life-histories of lingua francas, languages adopted for communication among speakers who do not otherwise share a language. It recognizes four principal motives for developing a lingua franca: commerce, conquest, religious conversion, and cultural attraction. A lingua franca depends for its survival on the continuation in force of one or other of these motives, unless some user population adopts it as a mother-tongue, passing it on in the home, or dropping it for one purpose only to take it up afresh for another: this is Regeneration. Other paths, for decline of a lingua franca, include Ruin or Resignation, if the user community dissolves, and Relegation, if the use of the language is deliberately banned. In this framework, the careers of major languages (excluding European empires) are narrated: Akkadian, Aramaic, Greek in West Asia; Greek (again) and Latin in the Mediterranean and Europe; the sprouting and interaction of languages before European conquests in the Americas, and in Africa; Sanskrit, Persian, and later Malay in Southeast Asia, the interplay of Putonghua with other Chinese dialects across East Asia; and the rise of Hindi-Urdu in South Asia.

Keywords

lingua francacommerceconquestreligious conversionmother-tonguelanguage historieslanguage loss
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
Volume 2: Multilingualism in Population Structure
 , pp. 403 - 428
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adelaar, Willem & Muysken, Pieter. 2004. The languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arthus, Gothard. 1974 [1614]. Dialogues in the English and Malaiane languages. Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum & Norwood, NJ: Walter J. Johnson.Google Scholar
Bae, Chui-Hun. 2014. Aramaic as a lingua franca during the Persian Empire (538–333 BCE). Journal of Universal Language 1.1–20.Google Scholar
Beverley, Robert. 2013 [1705]. The history and present state of Virginia, ed. Parrish, Susan Scott. Chapel Hill, NC: Omohundro Institute.Google Scholar
Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. 1987. Lingüística quechua. Cuzco: Centro de estudios rurales andinos “Bartolomé de las Casas.”Google Scholar
Ferrand, Gabriel. 1924. L’élément persan dans les textes nautiques arabes de XVe et XVIe siècles. Journal asiatique 204.191–257.Google Scholar
Gershevitch, Ilya. 1979. The alloglottography of Old Persian. Transactions of the Philological Society 114–90.Google Scholar
Hourani, George F. 1995. Arab Seafaring, expanded ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaspers, Karl. 1949. Vom Ursprung und Ziel de Geschichte (The origin and goal of history). Munich: R. Piper.Google Scholar
Kahane, Henry & Kahane, Renée. 1976. Lingua Franca: The story of a term. Romance Philology 30.10.25–41.Google Scholar
King, Linda. 1994. Roots of identity: Language and literacy in Mexico. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Klauser, Theodor. 1946. Der Übergang der römischen Kirche von der griechischen zur lateinischen Liturgiesprache. Miscellanea Mercati 1.467–82.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the world, 16th ed. Dallas, TX: SIL International.Google Scholar
Li, David C.S. 2006. Chinese as a lingua franca in Greater China. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 26.149–76.Google Scholar
Masica, Colin P. 1991. The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend. 1989. The origins of Fanagolo. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 4.211–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2001. The ecology of language evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Palmer, L.R. 1954. The Latin language. London: Faber.Google Scholar
Omar, Asmah Haji. 1983. The Malay peoples of Malaysia and their languages. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka.Google Scholar
Omar, Asmah Haji (ed.). 2004. Encyclopaedia of Malaysia, vol. 9: Languages and literature. Singapore: Didier Millet.Google Scholar
Ostler, Nicholas. 2005. Empires of the word. London & New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Ostler, Nicholas. 2010. The last lingua franca. Harmondsworth: Penguin & New York: Walker & co.Google Scholar
Sircar, D.C. 1960. Veraval inscription of Chalukya-Vaghela Arjuna, 1264 A.D. Epigraphia Indica 31.21.141–50.Google Scholar
Triana y Antorveza, Humberto. 1987. Las lenguas indígenas en la historia social del Nuevo reino de Granada. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.Google Scholar
Wolff, H. Ekkehard. 2000. Language and society. In African languages: An introduction, ed. by Heine, Bernd & Nurse, Derek, 298–347. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yule, Col. Henry & Burnell, A.C.. 1986 [1886]. Hobson Jobson, new ed., ed. by Crooke, William. New Delhi: Rupa & Co.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×