Claim: Songhay languages, which is used as a common language or language of trade for region, has had reconstructions for words such as stone, bird, scorpion, and ashes among others.
Evidence: They have been widely used as a lingua franca in that region ever since the era of the Songhai Empire. 'Frankish tongue'; for plurals see § Usage notes), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language or dialect systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when not one of the speakers' native languages. stone, mountain *tóndì bird *kídòw scorpion, mosquito *(n)děŋ ashes *bó:sú