Due partly to the Internet,

 English is the widest-spread lingua franca
there has ever been.  It is unfortunate
that it is a nuts-and-bolts, anti-abstract language
with little of the metaphysical subtlety
of Farsi or Pali. (Not to mention, thanks to Gutenberg
 + pronunciation-shift, a crazy orthography). 

But hey!
Things could be worse. The last lingua franca
was French, with much emotional subtlety
but little innovative plasticity,
or cut-and-paste opportunity
for verbal re-arrangement.

French could never come up with such
a brilliant word as 'infotainment'.