[LINK] English unites us

[rfmcdonald]

It doesn't seem right to call English a lingua franca, since the English language has only relatively faint genetic connections with the French language, and only a vague Germanic family relationship with Frankish. Nonetheless, English does seem to have become the world language of note, at least in Europe, as Michael M. observed yesterday at The Glory of Carniola about central Europe and as pompe wrote today about Scandinavia. I wonder if I should feel any sort of privilege; I also wonder what I might be missing out on.