Lingu francas are languages used b wide groups of people to facilitate communication between cultures that traditionally use separate languages; English is the lingua franca of much of the world, as people from Sweden to China to Egypt learn it to facilitate international communication. Pidgins and creoles are bastardizations of two or more languages from a merging or meeting of cultures.

National and official languages can be established to ease communication within a nation, but they do not always represent the real linguistic situation. Official/national languages require planning for documentation and to ensure that the language will serve the nation's needs. Norway had a difficult time selecting which dialect to make the official language, for example. Linguists play a role in this by helping to track and classify linguistic varietals and determine the effects of official changes.

Regional variation and social variation can both greatly impact linguistic changes due to...
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