The technologically superior countries keep flooding your ports with deliveries of new devices that they've named in their own language (the lingua franca). As your citizens pick up the deliveries and take them home, they yell out the foreign name of the device for others to hear and repeat. It is your job to pick a local name for each device and then yell it at anyone who dares use the foreign word. If the lingua franca becomes popular enough among your citizens, your language will become extinct. You must prevent this from happening for as long as possible.

Note that much of the game mechanics (yelling, picking local words, win/lose conditions) have not been implemented. All you can do at this point is wander the streets and watch your citizens carry foreign goods to their homes.