I was reading this thread about the world-wide use of English in computer programming. Air traffic control was also mentioned. It got me curious: What international industries have* lingua franca*s other than English?
The Olympics use French and English at the events , at least they did here in the US in 96. All announcements were made in both languages. I think that goes back to the guy who started the modern Olympics being French. I assume when the games are in a place that uses another language they use that language and they add French too.
Arabic in the Gulf and parts of the Mid East. French in the Levant and Francophone Africa.
I don’t know one, but as a point of reference that might be interesting: I work for a company based in the Netherlands, but with offices around the world. All official company correspondance must be in English, and everyone that they hire (except maybe for some menial jobs) must speak fluent English.
French and English are the two official languages of the Olympics. If a third language is used, it is the language of the host country. Annoucements are made in French first, because as you said the founder of the modern Olympics was French. This caused many (IMHO) humourous rants on the comments pages of Canadian media during the Vancouver Olympics as the crazy Western Canadian posters blamed it on the selfish Québecois :smack:
French is also supposed to be the international postal language. I remember receiving a package from Germany, and its custom declaration form is in German and French only. This may no longer be observed in many countries nowadays though.
I bought an International Reply Coupon (from the Universal Postal Union) in the US a few years ago, and it was in French, with an English translation on the back.
There are always exceptions, but normally when two different companies enter into contracts between each other, unless both countries share the same principal language, the contracts are normally done in English. This is primarily because English will normally be a common shared language.
Business English is very different from American English or even UK English. Even though the people from other countries that you are dealing with, may be fluent in English. Unless they have American friends that they interact with, or watch a lot of American television or movies, they do not normally understand the jokes or the common colloquialisms we use. Many times they will laugh when an American tells a joke, but not because they understand it, but because they know that it should be funny, because the other English speakers are laughing.
Hindi is the “lingua franca” of South Asia, particularly in entertainment. ‘Bollywood’ films and songs in Hindi are popular throughout the region. The reason for the amount of musical numbers in ‘Bollywood’ films is that even within India it was assumed a large percentage of the audience would not speak Hindi, but could still enjoy the singing and dancing, even if they could not understand the words.
^
Oh no its not.
It’s not like he was completely self-centered in choosing French. French was the language of European (and therefore world) diplomacy for most of the 18th and 19th centuries. So it wasn’t an unreasonable choice for the Olympics.
I never meant to imply that. You’re right that it was the language of diplomacy, and so choosing it in its own right made sense, though I suppose it helped him make up his mind that he happened to also speak the language!
Specific contact vernaculars used for international trade in various times and places.
[ul]
[li]Lingua Franca—basically dumbed-down Italian mixed with bits of French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish. Useful for intra-Mediterranean trade during the late Middle Ages.[/li][li]Russnorsk—a pidgin of Russian and Norwegian formerly used for seasonal contact between Arctic Sea personnel of those two nations.[/li][li]Any of the various French-, Dutch-, Spanish-, and Portuguese-based pidgins (many of them now nativized into creole languages) used in America, Africa, and Asia during the Ages of Exploration and Colonization, much of which involved some form of slavery. There were plenty of English-based contact vernaculars too, but you asked for non-English.[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]Plus Koine Greek circa 200 BCE-400 CE.[/li][/ul]
My American passport’s first two pages, containing my identifying information and a request from the Secretary of State that I be allowed to ‘pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection,’ are in both English and French. For example, one line is ‘Date of issue / Date de delivrance,’ under which is the date I got the passport. Do passports from other non-Francophone countries also use French? I’ve always assumed that this is a relic of its being the most widely used diplomatic language in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
My old Pakistani passport used to. They new one, is all in English.
As AK84 points out, not all passports have French on them, although it’s still quite common. From Wikipedia, a non-exhaustive list of language combinations on passports.
Thanks, all.
I was trying to think of something current and (mostly) global.
I thought about music. In the West, at least, the lingo is largely Italian. I don’t know if that’s true world-wide.
In some types of dancing (ballet, samba, salsa, etc.) the terminology comes from the country of origin. Again, I don’t know if that’s world-wide. Do they teach "plei"s, "pas de chat"s, "botafogo"s, and "cucaracha"s in China or Korea?
Not exactly an international industry, but the Catholic Church still uses Latin for formal meetings, Convications, etc.
There has been a rumor going around that in Europe they’re going to start labeling potential food allergens in Latin. I think the rationale is that the scientific names, which are Latin, are universal, at least in Europe. So, everyone with a deadly peanut allergy doesn’t have to learn the name for “peanut” in every European language in order to be safe on the road.
According to this site, they’ve already done it with personal care products:
European Labelling in Latin
All Soaps, Cosmetics and Personal Care Products from 1st January 1999 have to carry a FULL ingredients list printed in LATIN. This is to try and standardise the wording in all European Community Countries.
Products also included under this European Directive are as follows:-
Toiletries, Perfumes, Toothpaste, Shampoo, Hair Care Products, Creams and Deodorants.