English as a lingua franca?
Language diversity has been curiosity, amazement, mystery and fascination to writers, historians and scientists from time immemorial. Although specialists does not share a precise definition about the genesis of languages, everything seems to indicate that there have existed a group of languages from which derived the ones we know today. The linguistic evolution shows that there have been dominant languages or lingua francas as a consequence of the power, the expansion and dominance of some civilizations over others.
Therefore, a lingua franca (a latin word) is a language adopted by people that don´t share the same language in order to reach a common understanding.
A brief history of the lingua francas
Latin was the official language of church and lingua franca in different areas such as law, medicine, biology and other fields of scientific knowledge up to the XIV century due to the rise of the Roma Empire.
From the Renaissance to the late XIX century the language used by sailors and traders from the Mediterranean was called lingua franca. It was a popular language of spoken discourse, with a mix of italian, arab and greek, besides containing words in many other languages, and from which today are kept only few texts.
By the late XIX century it became extinct and English was adopted on the navy due to the power gained by the British Empire. French was the lingua franca belonging to the European aristocracy from the XVII century to the late XIX century, which coincides with the period of French splendour. Afterwards, its influence spread to Asia and America due to the French Empire colonization. Today, it is still used in international diplomacy and the main international bodies.
Trade relations with the East and the North of Africa have led to the appearance of various languages so that the inhabitants may understand the Europeans.
Lingua francas today
The Second World War has turned English into a lingua franca. This responded to socioeconomical and geopolitical processes that positioned and consolidated it as a dominant language in international politics, foreign trade, science, communication, cinema, television and music due to the cultural omnipresence of the United States into Europe and the world.
Notwithstanding that, countries promote language learning abroad, whether it be to promote its culture and economic relations or whether it be for the people's interest to learn a new language and culture.
Which is the place of Spanish today?
According to Instituto Cervantes, more than 490 million people speak Spanish as a native, second and foreign language, and is the second world language by number of native and second language speakers of international communication. The truth is that Spanish is gaining an ever increasing role in the world. In the last years, the demand of learners of Spanish as a foreign language has increased and will continue increasing.
The important fact is to recognize the lingua francas as such, to study and use them but keep and defend your mother tongue.