Grammar in focus
State the functions and meaning of the verbs to be and to have
TEXT 2
Before you read
Look up in a dictionary
A language distinct from a mother tongue; people not sharing a mother tongue; It was in use throughout the eastern Mediterranean; the language of commerce and seaborne commerce; the term originated from its meaning in Arabic and Greek; before the Crusades.
While you read
Read and point out the key sentences of each paragraph
Lingua Franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues. It works as a working language or bridge language for those who use it.
The original Lingua Francawas amixed language composed mostly (80%) of Italian with a broad vocabulary taken from Turkish, French, Greek, Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish. It was in use throughout the eastern Mediterranean as the language of commerce and diplomacy in and around the Renaissance era. At that time, Italian speakersdominated seaborne commerce in the port cities of the Ottoman empire.Franca was the Italian word for Frankish. Its usage in the term lingua franca originated from its meaning in Arabic and Greek, dating from before the Crusades and during the Middle Ages, whereby all Western Europeans werecalled "Franks" or Faranji in Arabic and Phrankoi in Greek during the times of the late Eastern Roman Empire. The termlingua franca is first recorded in English in 1678.
Examples of lingua francas are numerous, and exist on every continent. The most obvious example today is English. There are many other lingua francascentralized on particular regions, such as Arabic,Chinese,Russian,French and Spanish.
The popularity of languages changes over time, and there are many lingua francas that are of historical importance. For example, French was the language of European diplomacy from the 17th century until the mid-20th century. Until the early 20th century, Classical Chinese served as both the written lingua franca and the diplomatic language in Far East Asia including China,Mongolia,Korea,Japan,Vietnam.Arabic became the "lingua franca" of the Arab/Islamic Empire (from CE 733 – 1492), which at a certain point spread from the borders of China and Northern India through Central Asia,Persia,Asia Minor, Middle East, North Africa all the way to Spain and Portugal in the west.
After you have read
State whether the following statements are true or false
1) Lingua franca is the third language that you study.
2) Lingua franca is of an Italian Origin.
3) Lingua franca meant “the language of the Europeans”.
4) The term was first used in English in the 17-th century.
5) Every continent or region has its own lingua franca.
6) Lingua francas become more or less popular due to fashion.
Grammar in focus
State the part of speech of the ed-forms underlined in the text, translate them into Russian
Listening skills
Language Facts
Did you know that...
1) There are between __ and __ languages in the world - spoken by __ people divided into __ independent states.
2) There are about __ indigenous languages in Europe - roughly __ of the world’s total.
3) At least __ of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak __ or more languages.
4) Many languages have __ words or more, but individual speakers normally know and use only a fraction of the total vocabulary: in everyday conversation people use a few __ words.
5) Russia ( __ million inhabitants) has by far the highest number of languages spoken on its territory: from __ to __ depending on the criteria.
6) Due to the influx of migrants and refugees, Europe has become largely multilingual. In London alone some __ languages are spoken (Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Hindi, Punjabi, etc.).