[HillRat]

>English has become the new lingua franca (still cracks me up to pause and consider that literally), for better or worse.

On a completely pedantic note, lingua franca doesn't actually refer to what I think most people associate it with (the use of French as the diplomatic language of the 18th and 19th centuries in particular). It actually means the language of the franj, the "Franks," or Western Europeans. The original lingua franca was a pidgin Italian with a lot of Arabic and Turkish loanwords, the result of the Venetian dominance of the Levantine sea trade. Of course, in a purely literal sense, using it in phrases like, "Gulf media Arabic is the lingua franca of the Middle East" is itself wrong.

Tiresome pedantry complete, please carry on.

[haddr]

I think 'lingua franca' is never used in a purely literal sense, so probably nobody even thought about what you mention (which is definitely true)

[taneq]

This particular tiresome pedantry was quite interesting. Thanks!

[mitchtbaum]

> lingua franca doesn't actually refer to what I think most people associate it with

Wikipedia users also make that mistake: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Common_language&r...

[sverige]

TIL