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