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A lingua franca (LF) is a linguistic solution that has emerged from new communicative circumstances entailing language contact. Historically, these new circumstances take place in large part "under conditions of social inequality resulting from wars, conquests, colonialism, slavery, and migrations--forced or otherwise" (Sankoff, 2002, p. 641). The linguistic solution is a vehicular language utilized for the communication between persons or groups who do not share the same first language (Calvet, 2002, p. 169). It may be the promotion of one of the languages present to the status of LF, or the creation of mixed languages. Thomason gives this definition of a LF:
A language of wider communication--that is, a language that is used for communication between groups who do not speak each other's languages, as well as between native speakers (if any) of the lingua franca and other groups. A lingua franca is by definition learned as a second language by at least some of its speakers. Some lingua francas are also learned as a first language by some speakers[...]. Others are spoken solely as second languages. (2001, p. 269)
In fact, a LF can be spoken in many ways: as a native language, as a second language or even as a foreign language. In the last two categories, the LF may well undergo simplification and reduction in function, whereupon local pidginized and creolized forms might appear (Wardhaugh, 1992, pp. 56-57).
Through a review of current linguistic and sociolinguistic research on Spanish as a LF, this chapter will establish a relationship between the processes and results of language change, the circumstances of language contact and bilingualism, and the vehicular function that Spanish fulfills in specific social and political contexts. First we consider multilingual communication problems and vehicular solutions related to Spanish in the following situations: (a) in Afro-American settlements; (b) in colonized and ethnically diverse territories; (c) in border areas or bilingual enclaves; (d) in transnational migration and globalization; (e) in bilingual intercultural education programs. Second, we will present linguistic analysis of some of these vehicular solutions. Third, we discuss those conceptual elements raised during the study of Spanish as a LF capable of contributing to the construction of a theoretical framework articulating linguistic outcomes, language contact, and assymetrical communicative circumstances. Throughout the review, we...