A lingua franca is a language that combines simple words from multiple languages so that people who need to understand one another, in order to conduct trade and facilitate business, are able to communicate with one another. Lingua francas most commonly have emerged in history in places that serve as centers of trade for a wide variety of linguistic groups, such as southeast Asia and the Italian peninsula. People speaking lingua francas to one another won’t be able to discuss philosophy or existentialism, but they will be able to say “Hey, that is 11 dollars!”

In each of these nations there exists two or more languages that are spoken by a large proportion of the population. All of these countries also have some sort of language protection enshrined into their laws to protect the linguistic rights of those people who speak a language other than that spoken by the majority. The exception to this is France, which is very strictly monolingual and specifically requires that all government business be conducted in French.

Creole languages are formed by the combination of two or more languages. When this newly combined language becomes the primary language of the people in a region it is called a “creole” language. Such a situation has often arise in human history in places where indigenous people and colonizers live in close proximity. Creole languages are common in the Caribbean and various regions of the Americas in general.

Africa, Asia, and Oceania are the three most linguistically diverse continents in the world. The least linguistically diverse is South America where Spanish is spoken throughout the continent, with the notable exception of Brazil where Portuguese is spoken. Linguistic diversity is a by-product of a region's historical trends. South America, once home to thousands of indigenous languages, was conquered by the Spanish and Portuguese in the era of European colonialism and those languages have grown in influence and homogeneity in the centuries since.

The Polish linguist L.L. Zamenhof is most famous for his attempts to create a universal second language, called “Esperanto.” In his attempts to accomplish this, Zamenhof incorporated linguistic features from a wide variety of languages. He envisioned the language as something with which people all over the world, regardless of native language, could use to communicate with one another. So far, it has not been adopted in the manner Zamenhof intended, but the idea remains interesting and influential.

The United States has no official language. The reason for this has its roots in notions of American liberty and the national and ethnic composition of the United States at the time of independence - although English was the most commonly spoken language, the people of the early United States were from all over Europe and spoke a wide variety of languages. It was deemed a violation of individual liberty to prescribe an official language in such a setting and this has persisted to this day.

German is actually a High German language. Dutch is the only language on this list that is considered Low German. English is related to the Low German language (but has since been reclassified as Anglo-Frisian). French and Romanian are both Latin or “Romance” languages. Swedish is a Norse language. All of these languages are necessity part of the larger language family known as the Indo-European family.

Swahili is the most widely spoken language in the Niger-Congo language family, if the total number of speakers, rather than total number of native speakers is used as the primary determinant. It is spoken in Tanzania, Kenya, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and several other east African countries. It is the Lingua Franca of southeastern Africa.

A “creole” language is a language that has arisen from an earlier pidgin language and become the primary language for a specific cultural group. Creole languages are distinct from pidgin languages in that they are less fluid, more widely understood, and more defined linguistic features and boundaries. Class and cultural oppression may be factors in the development of a creole language, but they are not central factors to the definition of such languages.

Welsh, Irish, and Gaelic are considered part of the Celtic branch of Indo-European languages. Welsh is spoken by a minority of people in Wales, where the majority language is English. Welsh is fundamentally different in structure and sound than English. Both English and Welsh are, however, both part of the Indo-European language family so the difference is not nearly as great as the difference between, for instance, English and Thai.