If Europe should have a lingua franca that was NOT English, should it be French, German or Russian?

[Ouistreham]

For personal reasons I'd like it to be French — but honestly, it should be German:
• There are (or there have been) German speaking minorities in almost every European country (even in Iberia if you consider the Balearic Islands!).
• As a consequence the Germans are much more familiar to all neighbouring cultures that the other way round.
• The German culture area is consequently the real centre of gravity of Europe.
• Though religious factors are nowadays much less critical than they used to be, is'nt it very significant that Greater Germany is the only major culture equally divided between Catholics and Protestants?

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

You pretty much answer your own question when you say "lingua franca."

I, of course, prefer Esperanto.



The language of angels.

[JamesBond007]

Anyone?

Normand d'oïl !

Normans were once a ruling class throughout Europe even down to Sicily If I remember correctly and they conquered England so that the courts in England were once not in the English language.

[wvwvw]

It should be Spanish simply because Spanish the easiest language to learn for all Europeans, it also doesn’t sound bad.

[B01AB20]

For personal reasons I'd like it to be French — but honestly, it should be German:
• There are (or there have been) German speaking minorities in almost every European country (even in Iberia if you consider the Balearic Islands!).
• As a consequence the Germans are much more familiar to all neighbouring cultures that the other way round.
• The German culture area is consequently the real centre of gravity of Europe.
• Though religious factors are nowadays much less critical than they used to be, is'nt it very significant that Greater Germany is the only major culture equally divided between Catholics and Protestants?

Only a 'but'.

French and German are terribly difficult to learn.
French must be the most difficult romance language, and German the most difficult germanic language.

[Gredos]

can never be german due to lack of latin influence, making it very difficult to learn

An example, take a snippet from a recent news article in the most important languages :

Scientists have been planning this mission since 1989. It was supposed to launch between 2007 and 2011. But the telescope was more difficult and costly than anyone expected.

Les scientifiques planifient cette mission depuis 1989. Elle devait être lancée entre 2007 et 2011. Mais le télescope était plus difficile et plus coûteux que prévu.

Los científicos han estado planeando esta misión desde 1989. Se suponía que se lanzaría entre 2007 y 2011. Pero el telescopio fue más difícil y costoso de lo que nadie esperaba.

Gli scienziati hanno pianificato questa missione dal 1989. Doveva essere lanciata tra il 2007 e il 2011. Ma il telescopio era più difficile e costoso di quanto chiunque si aspettasse.

Wissenschaftler planen diese Mission seit 1989. Sie sollte zwischen 2007 und 2011 starten. Aber das Teleskop war schwieriger und kostspieliger als erwartet.

Wissenschaftler, schwieriger, kostspieliger...., german has a lot of very difficult words

so it should be French due to its centrality in Europe, however due to the fact that Spanish is more widespread in America, and increasingly so in Asia, it could be better in the future



(I don't understand the joke about including Russian)

[black hole]

The map must be like this







dark red: French
blue: German
green: Russian

[Hithaeglir]

French or Spanish.

[Cristiano viejo]

It should be Spanish, the most speaking European language in the world.

[Roy]

French, because it is the most aesthetic one, and I am the esthete. Also it's the one I understand the best.