To: WaterDragon
"...trying out their skill with the lingua franca."
Just to be pedantic ... "lingua franca" does not mean the French language.
To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
Just to be pedantic ... "lingua franca" does not mean the French language.
From the 17th century until the end of WW II, it could be argued that French was a lingua franca, certainly in diplomacy. Since that time, English has displaced it.
To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
14 posted on
11/08/2005 3:42:34 PM PST by
Savage Beast
(The French secretly want to be aristocrats, repeat the Revolution, and get their heads chopped off.)
To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
"lingua franca" does not mean the French language. I figured it means "tongue that licks stamps."
To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
I had the same reaction immediately.
For French to be a lingua franca, it would have to be understood by everyone, or at least by many, many people.
And there is nothing necessarily "franca" about a lingua franca.
22 posted on
11/08/2005 4:31:26 PM PST by
gaijin
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson