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The Origin and Development of the Lingua Franca” Manuel Sedlaczek “The Origin and Development of the Lingua Franca” A historical linguistic study DIPLOMARBEIT zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Magister der Philosophie Studium: Anglistik und Amerikanistik Universität Klagenfurt Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften Begutachter/in: O. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Allan Richard James Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik November 2010 i Declaration of honour For Master’s Theses, Diploma Theses and Dissertations I hereby confirm on my honour that I personally prepared the present academic work and carried out myself the activities directly involved with it. I also confirm that I have used no resources other than those declared. All formulations and concepts adopted literally or in their essential content from printed, unprinted or Internet sources have been cited according to the rules for academic work and identified by means of footnotes or other precise indications of source. The support provided during the work, including significant assistance from my supervisor has been indicated in full. The academic work has not been submitted to any other examination authority. The work is submitted in printed and electronic form. I confirm that the content of the digital version is completely identical to that of the printed version. I am aware that a false declaration will have legal consequences. (Signature) (Place, date) ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1 1.1 THE STUDY OF THE LINGUA FRANCA ............................................................. 1 1.2 HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND ANTHROPOLOGY ........................................... 4 1.3 THE CREATING OF HISTORY ............................................................................ 5 1.4 THE RE -INTEGRATION OF HISTORY ................................................................. 8 1.5 THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY ..................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE LINGUA FRANCA ...... 13 2.1 THE PROBLEM OF HISTORICITY .................................................................... 14 2.2 ATTEMPTS AT SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF HISTORICITY ................................ 16 CHAPTER 3: THE LINGUA FRANCA IN THE 19 TH CENTURY .............. 20 3.1 FRENCH AS A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF THE LINGUA FRANCA ........................... 21 3.2 SABIR IS NOT THE LINGUA FRANCA ............................................................. 25 3.3 THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY ..................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 4: THE LINGUA FRANCA IN THE 16 TH CENTURY .............. 28 4.1 DOCUMENTATION OF THE 16 TH CENTURY LINGUA FRANCA ......................... 29 4.2 THE UNITY OF THE LINGUA FRANCA ........................................................... 30 4.3 THE SITUATION OF THE LINGUA FRANCA IN THE 16 TH CENTURY .................. 31 4.4 THE LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF THE LINGUA FRANCA IN 16 TH CENTURY ...... 36 4.4.1 The linguistic stability of the Lingua Franca ....................................... 39 4.5 THE HISPANICIZED VARIETY ........................................................................ 41 4.6 THE ITALIANIZED VARIETY .......................................................................... 48 4.6.1 The importance of Italy ........................................................................ 50 4.6.2 The Italian colonies .............................................................................. 52 4.6.3 The importance of Italians ................................................................... 57 4.6.4 The importance of Italian ..................................................................... 60 4.6.5 The establishment of the importance of Italian .................................... 65 4.6.6 The slow advance ................................................................................. 74 4.6.7 The influence of Italian on the Lingua Franca .................................... 77 CHAPTER 5: THE ORIGINS OF THE LINGUA FRANCA ........................ 80 5.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF CHANCERY ................................................................. 82 5.1.1 The similarities of chancery and the Lingua Franca ........................... 91 5.1.2 Differences between chancery and the Lingua Franca ........................ 92 5.2 THE CONNECTION OF CHANCERY LANGUAGE AND THE LINGUA FRANCA ... 94 5.2.1 The date of origin ................................................................................. 96 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 103 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 106 iii Chapter 1: Introduction The study of Pidgins and Creoles offers a great variety of different topics and issues in the field of linguistics. One of such issues is the designated term “lingua franca” which was defined by Schuchardt and basically describes “any widely-spread commercial argot” (Markey, 1979: 32). A lingua franca, therefore, is a language that is known and spoken by a considerable number of people for communication purposes only and therefore is not necessarily spoken with a native-speaker competence. One may think of English as a current lingua franca, as English is widespread in the world and has also become a means of communication for people with different mother tongues. Many people whose mother tongue is different use English as a lingua franca to communicate with people of other nationalities and therefore other linguistic backgrounds. Fascinating as it is, the spoken form of English used as a lingua franca by these people may or may not be similar to the distinctive Pidgin and Creole structure itself. However, the term “lingua franca” derives from a very old Mediterranean language, which was indeed called the Lingua Franca. The Lingua Franca was a commercial or trading language used especially at sea and in the ports of the Mediterranean basin. The Lingua Franca is also said to be the genesis of Pidgins and Creoles itself. Some theories suggest that the Lingua Franca is the Ur-Pidgin of which all Pidgins and Creoles derive. Ur- Pidgin or not, the Lingua Franca is an essential issue in the study of Pidgins and Creoles and many theories about the role of the Lingua Franca for Pidgins and Creoles have evolved. In any case, the Lingua Franca deserves closer attention and should also be studied seriously by anyone focusing on the analysis of Pidgins and Creoles themselves, whether English-lexified or other language-lexified. 1.1 The study of the Lingua Franca The study of the Lingua Franca is not a new one. Schuchardt (1909) was the first to seriously study the Lingua Franca but there is still a lot to be discovered. One of such aspects is the question about the origin of the Lingua Franca. Many scholars have made different approaches to this question and have come up with numerous theses. However, not much agreement has been reached concerning the origin of the Lingua Franca. There unquestionably remains the problem of the genesis of the Lingua Franca. It is not 1 clear yet how or when the Lingua Franca came into existence and through what conditions and under what circumstances it was created. Many questions remain unanswered. Many opinions how to answer the question raised above have asked “how light could be thrown on the whole issue” (Le Page, 1961: 126). One suggestion was that detailed work needs to be done which should be “descriptive and historical” and “every effort should be made to” cover not only the language itself “but also the history and structure of the society” and also its development through historical and comparative linguistics (Le Page, 1961: 126ff). Because of this state of affairs, further research needs to be carried out and history should be looked at more carefully. A lot has been done about uncovering history in the 19 th century, however, there are a few things one should be aware of. Historical writing, or to be more precise, writing about the discoveries of the 15 th century, which will be one important aspect of this paper, started only in the middle of the 19 th century and as a consequence inhibited the approaches of the 19 th century. Everything not European was excluded and history was seen exclusively from the European point of view. This “European-centredness” (Chaunu, 1979: 206) had the effect that other countries were only considered after Europe had discovered them. “Europe was the only place which counted” (Chaunu, 1979: 206), and everything outside of Europe was simply ignored. This “European-centredness” (Chaunu, 1979: 206) will be avoided here and history will be looked at as a whole. The approach will be to give a complete picture of the events and circumstances of the 15 th century and even the time before that back to the 15 th century BCE to avoid the impression of a “disjointed history” (Chaunu, 1979: 210). It was only from the middle of the 20 th century that reconstructing history has become a major aspect when “the need to be able to move about easily in time” (Chaunu, 1979: 204) emerged. Until then history had basically been rejected and it was in 1971 when Edwin Ardener, an anthropologist, complained about this ´lack of history´ (1971: 209- 241) in linguistics, especially in historical linguistics. In my opinion, however, his claim is true until today. It was, of course, not only E. Ardener who complained about the lack of history in recent studies. According to J.
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