Cross-border language

They are international when they are situated over one or several geographical areas (ranging from regional to continental) with official status in at least one country.

When considering both asymmetrical and symmetrical cross-border languages, the population of the country in question remains key.

For example, Portuguese, which is an international language spoken in Angola, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Timor-Leste, São Tomé and Principe and Cape Verde, has no territorial continuity between these countries (except arguably if Galician, spoken in Spain, generally considered a separate language, is considered a dialect of Portuguese).

French is however also a cross-border language, spoken on both sides of the borders of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland and Italy (Aosta Valley).

It became a cross-border language following the conquests of the British Empire, notably with the establishment of the Canada–United States border and the partition of Ireland.

Cross-border languages rarely have no native speakers in the border regions, excepting international lingua francas.

Despite its small territory and low number of monolingual native speakers, Swahili, particularly in contact with Arabic, became the language of choice for communication between various groups of people.

The four categories of speakers in terms of comprehension[citation needed] can be illustrated by the example of Basque, which is spoken in the western Pyrenees, on both sides of the border between the states of Spain and France.

English plays a major role in the relations between the United States and Canada, two of the most intertwined economies in the world.

As an example, certain Christian churches evangelise populations in Africa with translations of the Bible and the help of associations such as the Summer Institute of Linguistics7.

For instance, the Kimbanguist church, founded by a Congolese man converted by a Protestant missionary society, operates in the territory of the Kikongo language[9] (18 million speakers across Angola, Gabon and the western regions of Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville).

Already over a century ago, oblate missionaries in the Congo studied Kikongo in Ipamu as part of their training.

Many Pashto speakers cross the Durand line to Pakistan to escape economic hardships as well as Taliban and American repression in Afghanistan.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Brussels underwent a rather significant reduction in use of Dutch in favour of French, given the international status of the latter.