Re: Lingua Franca Today - a reflection on this discussion....(a link to a backgrounder in response to request for definition)
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I am glad to see that I'm not the only one who wants to give Kelley what she wants...but I am unable to find a definition, either!
Are you folks trying to tell me I'm high maintenance? :)
Actually, a couple of people gave me what I was asking about. I was asking if I was right to think that the _current_ term would best be called business English, corporate English, American English, or ??? I should have consulted the OED, so true. According to the OED, the answer is that, today, we use the phrase "global English".
My sidebar, and Paul is largely right, but not that I wanted a definition. I was thinking of doing a very brief word origin sidebar, just like I'd do one for the hacker term "wetware" for this same client. Off the top of my head, the sidebar would have been something like this:
"Lingua Franca is a term referring to a common language that arose from the need to engage in commercial transactions among people who spoke different languages--French, Spanish, and Arabic. Lingua Franca was a unique language unto itself, not reducible to any one language that it was derived from. More importantly, lingua Franca was a language that lubricated the engine of commercial transaction run more smoothly and efficiently.[1] Today, we refer to a similar social (socio-linguistic?) phenomenon with the phrase, global English. When a Japanese firm wants to do business with a Brazilian firm, they speak global English to one another. Pilots from different countries (thanks!) speak global English. Today, however, global English is not really a separate language.
So, routers from different manufacturers are like people from different cultures. They need a common language that lubricates the engine of information exchange across the Internet. That common language is BGP.
Or something like that....
Here is a somewhat long-winded but interesting backgrounder on 'lingua
Franca.'
>
http://www.uwm.edu/~corre/franca/edition2/lingua.2.html
Thanks Melody, Sean, and others who pitched in with thoughts and comments.
I didn't really find Andrew's charge unprofessional or lacking decorum. Perhaps I'm calloused from years of listserv interactions. I simply thought it typical. I had a hard time thinking of it as a serious threat to my livelihood. It is true that, i the States, the standard for libelous speech is not whether what one says is knowingly false, but if there is "reckless disregard" for whether what is being said is false or not. I just wasn't especially flustered because I just interpreted it all as list gatekeeping.
Kelley
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References:
RE: Lingua Franca Today - a reflection on this discussion....: From: Sean O'Donoghue-Hayes (EAA)
Re: Lingua Franca Today - a reflection on this discussion....(a link to a backgrounder in response to request for definition): From: Melody Akins
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