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Comment by craftyguy | Hacker News Reader

It's mildly interesting how you (and the article) use 'Lingua franca' (Latin) and not it's English meaning of 'common language'.

Edit: s/Italian/Latin/

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'Lingua franca' is a Latin borrow phrase that literally mean "Frankish Tongue". It has a specific meaning and nuance in English, it doesn't mean Italian:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca

I never said it meant 'Italian', only that I (wrongly) thought it was Italian..

English is combination and splice of several languages. A few hundred years ago, writers found it much more extravegent to borrow French words, and Latin words, to say the same phrases. Usually, English is the most 'plain', then the French equivalent/derived, and then Latin is the most eloquent descriptor.

For example: Kingly (English), Royal (French), Regal (Latin)

We will borrow words from other languages with no problem - it just needs to become common enough. We have no "English Acedemy" that dictates the language - although you could argue that is a problem, given how it's been changed in America and abused by everyone, and has complex exceptions with no real decent rules (Although as an English native speaker, I'm not sure if that's just because I havent learnt those rules recently)

English speakers are not snobs; we borrow nice words and turns of phrase from wherever we encounter them. It's why English spelling is such a mess.

> English speakers are not snobs; we borrow nice words and turns of phrase from wherever we encounter them.

“We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” —James Nicoll

Our orthography fits Middle English extremely well. It can’t be helped that that’s not the language you’re speaking.

Lingua franca in modern usage doesn't mean exactly the same thing as 'common language'.

The English would actually be 'common speech' - the word language is Latin.

But 'common' is derived from Latin, too! :P

Yes true (although it is from Old French) - let's go for 'shared speech' instead :)

And, I'm sure people have heard of it before, there's a semi-conlang that proposes to remove all Romance borrowings from English called Anglish [1]. There's also "Uncleftish Beholding" which tries to explain basic atomic theory using only native words [2].

[1] http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Main_leaf

[2]https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.language...

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