| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| lingua franca |
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| SYLLABICATION: | lingua fran·ca |
| PRONUNCIATION: | fr ng k |
| NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. lingua fran·cas (-k z) also linguae fran·cae (fr ng k , fr n s ) 1. A medium of communication between peoples of different languages. 2. A mixture of Italian with Provençal, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish, formerly spoken on the eastern Mediterranean coast. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Italian : lingua, language + franca, Frankish (that is, European).
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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