What Is An International Language? Starting Points for a Further Discussion
Abstract: In the current context of globalization, the use of a widely known linguistic code becomes a requirement for maintaining the economic, political and trading relations between different nations around the world. Considering the phenomenal spread of the English language that contributed to its qualification as a “global language”, the aim of this paper is to establish what makes a language to be international. To this purpose, I discuss different sets of criteria elaborated by various researchers and I argue that the main test for classifying a language as “international” is not the mere number of its speakers, but the number of users who learn to speak it in an unconditional manner, i.e., the extension of what linguists call its “area of influence”.
Keywords: international language, global, foreign speakers, influence area, functional power.
Citation suggestion: Ungureanu, Georgiana. “Ce este o limbă de circulație internațională? Puncte de plecare pentru o discuție viitoare” Transilvania, no. 6-7 (2022): 136-139. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.16.
