Another pidgin: the Lingua Franca
I’m writing about yet another pidgin language, the famous Lingua Franca, here… …to share various finds regarding that language that I’m not sure Natalie Operstein knew of when she wrote her superb book on it.
Image credit: Barnes & Noble
…and also, to show you a little something that lets you compare Chinuk Wawa with another pidgin.
These links go to Newspapers.com.
1769, England: a rare visitor, a Chinese man (via the Dutch East Indies) who speaks Lingua Franca mixed with broken English
1771, Portugal: the Marquis de P— is offered a position by the Russian government due to his knowing Lingua Franca
1784, Algiers: a description of the Lingua Franca spoken there
1785, Barbary ports: another description
1785-1786: the Lingua Franca is such a well-known phenomenon that in Britain, popular entertainments are named after it, use it as a plot device, and so on
1788: a description of conditions in Algiers provided in Lingua Franca to a correspondent
1788: Count De Lusi of Prussia is appointed as an envoy to the Ottoman Empire because he speaks Turkish and Lingua Franca
1798: the phrase Lingua Franca is used in a Pennsylvania newspaper as a kind of dismissive synonym for ‘gibberish’
1800, Alexandria, Egypt: the moresco or Lingua Franca is spoken
1800, Algiers: Lingua Franca is spoken
first decade of 1800s — Lingua Franca is a generic descriptor of Irish immigrants’ speech, of Hindoostanee (Hindi), etc.
1815: Algiers, Lingua Franca is spoken (this one may be a reprint of an older piece)
And here’s a reasonable sample of what the heavily Romance-based Lingua Franca was like…
1829, NY: a poem translated into many languages, one of those shown being Lingua Franca:
A sti lugar tre parte star,
Speranza, morte,mala fama
Il home per i[l*] prima entrar,
E per il altre se marchar
Cuando el gran diablo clama.
