lingua franca(redirected from lingua francas)
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n. pl. lingua fran·cas (-kəz) also linguae fran·cae (frăng′kē, frăn′sē)
1. A medium of communication between peoples of different languages.
2. A mixture of Italian with Provençal, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish, formerly spoken on the eastern Mediterranean coast.
[Italian : lingua, language + franca, Frankish (that is, European).]
lingua franca(ˈlɪŋɡwə ˈfræŋkə)
n, pl lingua francas or linguae francae (ˈlɪŋɡwiː ˈfrænsiː)
1. (Linguistics) a language used for communication among people of different mother tongues
2. (Linguistics) a hybrid language containing elements from several different languages used in this way
3. (Linguistics) any system of communication providing mutual understanding
[C17: Italian, literally: Frankish tongue]
(Languages) a particular lingua franca spoken from the time of the Crusades to the 18th century in the ports of the Mediterranean, based on Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish
lin′gua fran′ca(ˈfræŋ kə)
n., pl. lingua fran•cas, lin•guae fran•cae (ˈlɪŋ gwi ˈfræn si, ˈfræŋ ki)
1. any language that is widely used as a means of communication among speakers of other languages.
2. (caps.) a pidgin with a lexicon drawn largely from Italian that was spoken in Mediterranean ports from the late Middle Ages to the early 20th century.
[1670–80; < Italian: literally, Frankish tongue]
A language used for communication between speakers of different languages, often containing elements of several languages.
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|Noun||1.||lingua franca - a common language used by speakers of different languages; "Koine is a dialect of ancient Greek that was the lingua franca of the empire of Alexander the Great and was widely spoken throughout the eastern Mediterranean area in Roman times"|
language, linguistic communication - a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols; "he taught foreign languages"; "the language introduced is standard throughout the text"; "the speed with which a program can be executed depends on the language in which it is written"