Lingua Franca (Italian, “Frankish language”), language used over a wide geographic area as a means of communication—generally to facilitate commerce and trading—by people who have no other language in common. The term is derived from Lingua Franca, a pidgin, or simplified compromise language, based on Italian, with admixtures of Spanish, French, Greek, and Arabic, used in the Mediterranean area by traders in the Middle Ages. As exploration opened up new areas of trade, lingua francas developed, especially in the New World and East Asia. A lingua franca may be a pidgin. Examples are Chinook Jargon, based on Chinook augmented by other Native American languages, English, and French, formerly used in the Pacific Northwest; and Bazaar Malay, a simplified variety of Malay spoken in the former Netherlands Indies and British Malaya. A preexisting, unsimplified language may also be used as a lingua franca, for example, French, the language of 18th-century diplomacy; Swahili, spoken today throughout East Africa; or English, used in modern India.

See also Language; Pidgin.