Lingua europa

Lingua europa is the term used to describe the common language of the lands ruled by Baron Klaus Wulfenbach; the language itself is German.

The term is a neologism modelled on lingua franca, which is any language widely used beyond the population of its native speakers. The term comes from the Italian, literally meaning 'Frankish language', originating from the Arabic custom of referring to all Europeans as 'Franks' from the cultural exposure during the Crusades.

The original lingua franca was mostly Italian with a broad vocabulary drawn from Persian, French, Greek and Arabic; one may infer from this that the lingua europa likewise has a heavy infusion of Transylvanian-dialect Romanian (from the Baron's home lands and starting point of pacification), langue d'Oc from the south, and French and Alsatian from the west.

In parallel to Europan use, in our world, German (from Wikipedia), "...served as a lingua franca in large portions of Europe for centuries, mainly the Holy Roman Empire.... From about 1200 to 1600, Middle Low German was the language of the Hanseatic League which was present in most Northern European seaports, even London.... During the 19th and 20th centuries, Germany was leading in the sciences — particularly in physics, chemistry and sociology, winning many Nobel Prizes — and the language was also used in international business and politics."