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 della Valle, 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 Turks
• 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: Anthoine Vassallou
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 en Tunisie (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 della Valle 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 della Valle. 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