Mediterranean lingua franca, ca. 1450-1650: Threshold or holdover?

Karla Mallette Professor of Italian and Middle East Studies University of Michigan • The research question • Lingua franca: definition and structure • Evidence • Negative evidence • Afterlife

Image: 15th century Genoese portolan Pre-modern Mediterranean trade routes: • Trans-Mediterranean routes • Cabotage (along the coast)

How did travelers on these trade routes communicate? Cabotage: navigation in coastal waters

French cabotage, Spanish cabotaje, Italian cabotaggio

From northern French nautical terminology

Image: ceiling of S. Giacomo dall’Orio, Venice; roof dates to the 14th century Crews and passengers on Mediterranean ships came from ports throughout the Mediterranean. How did they communicate?

Enrica Salvatori, “Corsairs’ Crews and Cross- Cultural Interactions: The Case of the Pisan Trapelicinus in the Twelfth Century.” Medieval Encounters 13 (2007) 32-55.

“In 1596, a group of caulkers and carpenters working on a Venetian merchant ship in Istanbul included Slavs, Messinese, Genoese, Neapolitans, French, Romans, Greeks, Germans, Puglians, Corsicans, Portuguese, Spaniards, Venetians, Rhodiots and six Muslims of unspecified provenance.” Eric Dursteler, “Speaking in Tongues” 59

Image: man overboard! Lancelot cycle in French, copied in Venice ca. 1300 The crusades brought western Europeans to the Holy Land between ca. 1100-1250.

How did they communicate with each other and with locals in the eastern Mediterranean? Credo “according to the Latin and Greek tongues” (first half of the 13th century)

I believe / in one God / father / omnipotent / creator / of heaven and earth / and which are seen / of all / and not seen M. Egger, “Mémoire sur un document inédit pour servir à l’histoire des langues romanes.” Mémoires de l’Institut de France 21 (1857): 349-76. Pilgrims – both Muslim and Christian – traveled across the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean to reach the Holy Land (Jerusalem for Christians, Mecca for Muslims).

How did they communicate with ship’s crews and with locals on their voyages?

Image: the travels of Ibn Jubayr, 1183-85 Between the 16th-18th centuries, the bagnios (prisons) of the Barbary regencies held a population of Christian prisoners, either as slaves or as captives for ransom.

How did prisoners and captors communicate?

Image: the Barbary regencies John Wansbrough: Lingua franca in the Mediterranean Richmond (Surrey): Curzon Press, 1996.

“A Mamluk Letter of 877/1473.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 24 (1961): 200-213. “A Moroccan Amīr’s Commercial Treaty with Venice of the Year 913/1508.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 25 (1962): 449-71. “Venice and Florence in the Mamluk Commercial Privileges.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 28 (1965): 483-523. “A Judaeo-Arabic Document from Sicily.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 30 (1967): 305-313. “Diplomatica Siciliana.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 47 (1984): 10-21. “Sic enim est traditum.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 51 (1988): 203-213. • The research question • Lingua franca: definition and structure • Evidence • Negative evidence • Afterlife

Image: 15th century Genoese portolan The lingua franca was used by populations who came into contact with each other and had to communicate with each other over the longue durée

• Longue durée > the Annales school, Braudel • Opposed to histoire événementielle • Focuses on long-term and/or habitually repeated historical dynamics: e.g. not the thoughts and actions of princes but the cycles and rhythms of Mediterranean life

Image: Venice (from the Kitab-i Bahriye, or Book of the Sea, by Piri Reis; early 16th century) EVERYTHING YOU EVER NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES:

Connectivity (Horden & Purcell) or routes et villes (Braudel) or orbits (Wansbrough) + the longue durée (Annales school) = the Mediterranean

When places that are distinct and self-identical are put into contact with places that are physically distant and also distinct and self-identical, and that contact is constant but sporadic over a long period of time, a unique historical dynamic emerges. But – is it unique to the Mediterranean? The lingua franca was used by populations who came into contact with each other and had to communicate with each other over the longue durée: • corsairs and other sailors • captives in the bagnios of the Barbary regencies • honest merchants and traders • Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land • dragomans (or interpreters)

Image: Venice (from the Kitab-i Bahriye, or Book of the Sea, by Piri Reis; early 16th century) Lingua franca

> Latin Franci ? Lingua franca

> Byzantine phrangoi > Latin Franci ? Lingua franca

> Arabic ifranj > Byzantine phrangoi > Latin Franci ? Lingua franca

> Romance franco > Arabic ifranj > Byzantine phrangoi > Latin Franci ? Lingua franca

> Romance franco > Arabic ifranj > Byzantine phrangoi > Latin Franci ?

Definition of franco: Western Christian – from the perspective of someone from the eastern Mediterranean Structure of the lingua franca:

• Simplified Italian/Romance • Vocabulary from other languages, especially Greek and Arabic • Pidginization strategies: • Use of the infinitive rather than conjugated verbs • Simplified nouns: no distinction between singular and plural or between masculine and feminine • Simple, rudimentary vocabulary • Subject to relexification: Italian vocabulary (more common in the eastern Mediterranean) could be swapped out for Spanish vocabulary (in the western Mediterranean) Veccio, veccio, niçarane Christiano ven aca, porque tener aqui tortuga? qui portata de campaña? gran vellaco estar, qui ha portato. Anda presto piglia, porta fora, guarda diablo, portar a la campaña, questo si tener en casa, estar grande pecato. Mira no trovar mi altra volta, sino a fee de Dio, mi parlar patron donar bona bastonada, mucho mucho. Antonio de Sosa, Topographia e historia general de Argel (1612) Veccio, veccio, niçarane Christiano ven aca, porque tener aqui tortuga? qui portata de campaña? gran vellaco estar, qui ha portato. Anda presto piglia, porta fora, guarda diablo, portar a la campaña, questo si tener en casa, estar grande pecato. Mira no trovar mi altra volta, sino a fee de Dio, mi parlar patron donar bona bastonada, mucho mucho.

Old man, old man, Christian (nasrani), Christian (Christiano), come here, why are you holding that turtle? Who brought it from the field? He’s a big scoundrel, the one who brought it. Go, quickly, pick it up, take it outside, for goodness’ sake, take it to the field, if you keep it in the house it’s a great sin. See that I don’t find it another time, if so – by God – I’ll speak to the boss, who will give you a good thrashing, an awful lot. Cifoletti, La lingua franca barbaresca (Rome, 2004); reprint of Dictionnaire de la langue franque ou petit mauresque (Marseille 1830) From the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics: lingua franca: Any language used for communication between groups who have no other language in common: e.g. Swahili in much of East and Central Africa where it is not native. Cf. langue véhiculaire, also pidgin; in reference to Africa, in particular, these categories are not always easily distinguished langue véhiculaire: French term for a language used in communication between members of societies whose own languages are different: e.g. French itself in much of West and Central Africa

Image: Pier Francesco Mola, “Barbary Pirate” (1650) From the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics: pidgin: A simplified form of speech developed as a medium of trade, or through other extended but limited contact, between groups of speakers who have no other language in common: e.g. the simplified forms of English, French, or Dutch which are assumed to be the origin of creoles in the West Indies. Distinguished in principle at least from less established forms of similar origin, sometimes described as ‘jargons’ or ‘pre-pidgins’ From the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics: creole: Defined, in classic treatments, as a language that has developed historically from a pidgin. In theory, accordingly, a pidgin develops from trade or other contacts; it has no native speakers, its range of use is limited, and its structure is simplified. Later it becomes the only form of speech that is common to a community; it is learned by new speakers and used for all purposes; its structure and vocabulary are enlarged; and so on.

Thence, more generally, of any form of speech perceived as having structural features similar to those of pidgins, or of forms traditionally described as ‘creoles’, or known to have arisen historically over a characteristically short period; whether or not development from a pidgin is posited or can be demonstrated. E.g. Middle English was a creole, under a sufficiently loose definition. The lingua franca only existed as a spoken language: it never creolized (it was no one’s mother tongue and never became a written language). • The research question • Lingua franca: definition and structure • Evidence • Negative evidence • Afterlife

Image: 15th century Genoese portolan The galley, used by the Barbary My research strategy: and Maltese corsairs • Following the trail of those who wrote about the lingua franca • Digital resources • Looking for language

The xebec, used by the Sallee rovers Earliest sources that describe the lingua franca: Algiers: Antonio de Sosa, Topographia e historia general de Argel (1612): “La tercera lengua que en Argel se usa, es la que los moros y turcos llaman franca, o hablar franco” The Levant and Tunis: Relation des voyages de monsieur de Brèves, tant en Grèce, Terre Saincte et Aegypte, qu’aux Royaumes de Tunis et Arger, le tout recueilly par Jacques du Castel (1628): “Italien, mais un parle corroumpu, ou pour mieux dire un iargon” Syria: Pietro dellaValle, Viaggi (1658): “Parlava costui un poco italiano, cioè quella lingua bastarda ... che in queste parti d’Oriente la chiamano franco piccolo” Between 1484 and 1650, we have • 20 recorded twenty comments in the lingua franca • 12 of these from a single text: the account of Antonio de Sosa, a Portuguese traveler taken captive and held in the bagnio in Algiers from 1577 until 1581

Speakers of lingua franca: • 17 are described as Arabs or Tu r k s • 2 are described as renegades • 1 is a dragoman, or translator Of the recorded lingua franca “texts” • the shortest is a single word • 3 others are only three words long • the longest is 58 words

In total: • 305 words representing 115 different lexemes (word roots)

Word frequency: • no: 13 • estar (to be): 12 • gran, grande (big): 9 • si (yes): 8 • cane (dog): 7 • perro (dog): 3 • Dios, dio (God): 7 Origin of the lingua franca: • Why a Romance pidgin – and not Arabic? • When and where did it emerge?

• How complete is the documentary record? • We will return to this question… Lingua franca never became a written language.

But we do have examples of written Italian used as a bureaucratic language of convenience in the archives of the French Consulate at Tunis.

“Votum Feci Gratiam Accepi” (“I made a prayer and received a grace”) Ex-voto in thanksgiving for salvation from death at sea. Museo Storico Navale, Venice The French consulate in Tunis: • Mediated all disputes that involved Franks (western Christians) in Tunis • The Turks captured Tunis from the Spaniards in 1574 • Earliest preserved records of the French consulate in Tunis date to 1582 Examples:

2 July 1602. In Italian. A receipt for a debt paid by Joanne Russo (Corsican captain) to Caïd Ricep, French renegade.

20 September 1602. In Italian. An Egyptian (raïs Amor Miselim of Alexandria) pays three different Sicilians to ransom three different Turks.

7 September 1604. In Italian. Dr. Francesco Lorenzvallef pays the raïs Giuma for his ransom. Giuma swears on the Qur’an that he’ll pay the sum to Cara Osman Dey for Francesco’s release.

18 January 1605. In Italian. An English renegade pays a ransom to a Scotsman for a Christian from Palermo. Consular secretaries and the contracts they wrote

Italian French Italian + French 1602, January-April: Jean-Louis Beau 23 9 1 1602, May - 1603, June: Beneditto Saytta 93 1 1603, June-August: Anthoine Bérenger 13 0 1603, August – 1604, February:Anthoine Vassallou 44 16 1604, March-August: Louis Boyer 31 16 1604, August-1605, June: Dassouyn 59 57 1605, June-October: AnthoineVassallou 29 7 When were contracts recorded in Italian? • When non-French “Franks” or Greeks were signatories • When “Turks” or “Moors” (renegades or not) were signatories • When they record business transactions involving Franks and Turks or Moors Whenever they are signed by or adjudicate the business of non-French parties

Is this a more formal – written – register of the lingua franca? But it was a two-way street! Italian words from the Arabic: arsenale: arsenal or shipyards; from dār al-sanā‘a, industrial workshop dogana: customs office; from dīwān, office assassino: assassin; from ḥashshāsh, hashish smoker magazzino: storeroom, merchandise; from makhzan (pl. makhāzin), storeroom ragazzo: young man; from raqqāṣ, someone who moves about quickly rischio: risk; from rizq, unanticipated profit risma: ream; from rizma, bundles of cotton shredded to make paper tariffa: tariff, Venetian word for merchants’ manuals; from ta‘rīfa, information or an announcement or notification of information Arabic words that appear in Venetian documents but did not become Italian words: xagalado = Arabic zaghal, debased or false money zibetto = Arabic zabad, foam (i.e. musk) arram = Arabic arabūn, deposit or pledge mochari = Arabic mūkāriyya, animal hirers garimo = Arabic gharīm, debtor or legal adversary zemechia = Arabic jāmakīya, salary

Source: John Wansbrough, “A Mamluk Letter of 877/1473” (1961); “Venice and Florence in the Mamluk Commercial Privileges” (1965) Pierre Grandchamp, La France enTunisie (Tunis, 1920), vol. 1 D. Giuseppe Barbera, Elementi italo-siculo-veneziano-genovesi nei linguaggi arabo e turco (Beirut, 1940) Jal, A. Glossaire nautique (Paris, 1848) Available on Google books Kahane, Kahane and Tietze, Lingua Franca in the Levant: Turkish Nautical Terms of Italian and Greek Origin (Urbana [IL], 1958) Articles by Joseph Cremona on Italian as bureaucratic koine in the early modern Mediterranean: “L'italiano in Tunisi.” Italiano e dialetti nel tempo: Saggi di grammatica per Giulio C. Lepschy, ed. Paola Beninci et al. (Rome: Bulzoni, 1996), 85-97. “Acciocch’ ognuno le possa intendere: The Use of Italian as a Lingua Franca on the Barbary Coast of the Seventeenth Century. Evidence from the English.” Journal of Anglo- Italian Studies [Malta] 5 (1997): 52-69. “La lingua d’Italia nell’Africa settentrionale.” La lingua d’Italia: Usi pubblici e istituzionali. Atti del XXIX Congresso internazionale SLI, Malta, 3-5 novembve 1995, ed. Gabriella Alfieri and Arnold Cassola (Roma: Bulzoni, 1998), 34-36. “Français et italien au XVIIe siècle.” Actes du XXIe Congrès international de linguistique et de philologie romane, Brussels, 23-29 juillet 1998, ed. Annick Englebert et al. (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2000), 3:135-43. “Geografia linguistica e ‘lingua franca’ del Mediterraneo.” Carlo Napoli e il Mediterraneo. Atti del Convegno internazionale svoltosi dall’ 11 a1 13 gennaio 2001, ed. Giuseppe Galasso and Aurelio Musi [= Archivio storico per le Province napoletane, 119 (2001)] (Naples: Società napoletana di storia patria, 2001), 289-304. “Italian-based Lingua Francas around the Mediterranean.” Multilingualism in Italy: Past and Present, ed. Anna Laura Lepschy and Arturo Tosi (Oxford: Legenda, 2002), 24-30. “Histoire linguistique externe de l’italien au Maghreb.” Romanische Sprachgeschichte/ Histoire linguistique de la Romania, ed. Gerhardt Ernst et al., I (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2003), 961-66. Juan del Encina, pilgrimage poem (1520-21)

Benda ti istran plegrin Benda, [oh] you foreign pilgrim – benda, marqueta, maidin benda marqueta maidin. [names of coins]

Benda benda stringa da da One benda, one benda, I give a lace, a colored lace. Give it agugeta colorada to your Arab girlfriend and Allah give you a good morning. dali moro namorada y ala ti da bon matin.

Por ala te rrecomenda By Allah I recommend you to spend a maidin, a marqueta, a dar maidin marqueta benda benda [to hire] a beast complete with provisions: a donkey con bestio tuto lespenda is an excellent steed. xomaro estar bon rroçin.

Peregrin taybo cristian Good Christian pilgrim, if you wish to go to the Jordan, take si querer andar Jordan bread for your journey for you will find neither bread nor pilla per tis jornis pan wine. que no trobar pan ne vin. Juan del Encina, pilgrimage poem (1520-21)

Pilla pilla per camino Take for the road a cockerel, an excellent fowl, and some polastro bona galino good fine figs and good gourds and sweet grapes. bono fica taybo fino y taybo zucarrazin.

Pilla lobo coto ades Take some boiled eggs now. For a benda I give you two or per benda dar dos e tres three, for a marqueta five or six, for a maidin 10 or 12. per marqueta çinca seys dez e duz per vn marydin.

Per marqueta e maydin dar By giving a marqueta or a maidin [you can have] eggs and ovos haba per manjar beans to eat. A marqueta is worth a baiocco, and two marqueta bayoco estar baioccos one maidin. dos bayocos vn maydin.

Marçela çinca maidines Within the boundaries of Judea a marcello is worth five valer Judea confines maidins – good coins, not rotten bad ones, if they ring true. taybos no marfuzes rruynes sy xonar bono tintin. Source: Harvey, L.P., R.O. Jones and Keith Whinnom. “Lingua Franca in a Villancico by Encina.” Revue de littérature comparée 41 (1967): 572-579. V. Malamani, Il Settecento a Venezia, volume 2 (Roma, 1892)

D'Armenia vegnira There once was a merchant who came from e stara mercanta, de gioia tegnira Armenia. He had such a great quantity of jewelry in quantità tanta and porcelain from China. Who wants to buy? The e de China porcelana: beautiful Venetian girl pleases me so much that, by chi voler comprar? Diana, if she loves me, I will give her whatever she Bela puta veneziana piaxer tanto, che, per diana, wants. se ela mi amar tuto quanto mi donar.

Diamonds and rubies, emeralds and topaz, jasper, Diamanta e rubina, smeralda e topaza, deep blue and violet stones, with oriental pearls diaspra e turchina black amber – and salt too. Who wants to buy? The e piera paonazza, beautiful Venetian girl pleases me so much that, by con perla oriantala, ambra nigra e anca zala, Diana, if she loves me, I will give her whatever she chi voler comprar? wants. Bela puta veneziana piaxer tanto, che, per diana, se ela mi amar tuto quanto mi donar. • The research question • Lingua franca: definition and structure • Evidence • Negative evidence • Afterlife

Image: 15th century Genoese portolan Negative examples: historical testimonies that seem to indicate the absence of lingua franca

Francesco Lanfreducci and Giovanni Otho Bosio, Knights of Malta: Costa e Discorsi di Barberia (1587) • an intelligence report on the Barbary Coast [i.e. the coast of the Maghreb] • Christian sailors off the coast of Tunis use the language “of the Turks” to speak with “the Moors and Arabs”

Giovanni Francesco Alcarotti, an Italian who traveled to the Holy Land in 1596, wrote a book about his travels overland from Constantinople to Jerusalem. He included a list of words – mainly Turkish – that the traveler would need on his travels. He said nothing about the lingua franca. Negative examples: historical testimonies that seem to indicate the absence of lingua franca

Juan Ceverio de Vera, a Spaniard who traveled to The galley, used by the Barbary the Holy Land in 1598: western European and Maltese corsairs travelers use Italian to speak to the Turks.

Domenico Magri, Maltese by birth, was a Catholic priest living in Rome; he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Mount Lebanon in 1664. He had studied Arabic in Rome, and because he was Maltese the language was easy for him to learn. He says a lot about Greek speakers in the Lebanon and nothing about the lingua franca.

The xebec, used by the Sallee rovers One of our earliest descriptions of the lingua franca comes from a letter written by Pietro The galley, used by the Barbary dellaValle about his visit to Aleppo in 1616: “I and Maltese corsairs was visited by a Maronite priest; and since he spoke a little Italian – or rather, that bastard language, which uses infinitives rather than other tenses of the verb, which in those parts of the Orient they call franco piccolo – he was an extraordinary comfort to me.”

The xebec, used by the Sallee rovers Giovanni Paolo Pesenti (1572-1651) describes Ramadan in Aleppo, 1612: Every year they observe a month-long fast which lasts from the waxing to the waning of the moon, and during this time they do not eat or drink anything from sunrise until sunset; afterward they eat and drink all night long, and throughout the city there are many places where everybody goes to drink a certain The galley, used by the Barbary black water, very hot, which they call Cave; there, they and Maltese corsairs also drink tobacco in great quantities; and so many people get together to drink, that there are at times more than three hundred, and they play various wind instruments, drums, and tambourines; there are young people there who dance, and other young men who go about the place carrying the cave to all upon special trays, made of a material similar to porcelain; they commit also many acts nefarious to do and to talk about; as they go out each one leaves a bit of money with the owner, who stands at the door; and they do this all night long, and this is a common practice throughout Turkey. The xebec, used by the Sallee rovers What Pesenti says about the languages of Aleppo:

Caravans from “an infinite number of countries” converge in Aleppo, and “many men act as The galley, used by the Barbary and Maltese corsairs interpreters, speaking in such a diversity of languages, that I don’t believe so many can be heard in any other city of the universe.”

Pesenti is the kind of character you would expect to notice and write about the lingua franca. And he was in Aleppo just four years before Pietro dellaValle. Why did he know nothing about the lingua franca?

The xebec, used by the Sallee rovers My research strategy: • Following the trail of those who wrote about the lingua franca • Digital resources • Looking for language

Why is the lingua franca so often missing from the historical record? The galley, used by the Barbary and Maltese corsairs Possible answers: • The people who used it were marginal characters who did not leave extensive written records of their lives • It was a specialized jargon, used throughout the Mediterranean but only by people from certain walks of life • Language was fluid, unfixed, not well defined, and multiple by nature. People were used to linguistic improvisations and work-arounds The xebec, used by the Sallee and didn’t consider them worthy of note rovers • The research question • Lingua franca: definition and structure • Evidence • Negative evidence • Afterlife

Image: 15th century Genoese portolan Remnants of the lingua franca:

Pidgin Italian spoken in Italian empire cinema

Tutto bene. Nostra vita stare nel deserto. Nel deserto uomo dimenticare tutto.

[Everything good. Our life is in the desert. In the desert man forget everything.]

“Lo squadrone bianco” (Augusto Genina, 1936) Remnants of the lingua franca:

Polari – a form of British cant (or slang) associated with actors, circus performers, criminals, prostitutes, and gay subculture

Polari > Italian parlare, to speak Lingua franca words in English:

Avast > Italian basta Parley > Italian parlare Savvy > Spanish, Portuguese, Occitan saber