The Lingua Franca

The Lingua Franca by Natalie Operstein, published by Cambridge University Press on December 2, 2021, is a comprehensive examination of the Mediterranean Lingua Franca, spanning 335 pages. This book delves into the complexities surrounding the term ‘Lingua Franca’ and the anonymity of its key publication, the Dictionnaire de la langue franque ou petit mauresque. Through a typologically informed analysis, it explores the historical and linguistic contexts of this significant work, shedding light on contact-induced language change.
Readers will find a detailed investigation into the authorship, publication history, and structural typological positioning of the Dictionnaire’s Lingua Franca. The book proposes hypotheses that refine our understanding of contact outcomes between Romance languages and pidgins. By examining these linguistic realities, The Lingua Franca opens new avenues for research in both linguistics and history, making it a valuable resource for those interested in language arts, social science, and anthropology.
Official synopsis Publisher
Whose name is hidden behind the anonymity of the key publication on Mediterranean Lingua Franca? What linguistic reality does the label ‘Lingua Franca’ conceal? These and related questions are explored in this new book on an enduringly important topic. The book presents a typologically informed analysis of Mediterranean Lingua Franca, as documented in the Dictionnaire de la langue franque ou petit mauresque, which provides an important historical snapshot of contact-induced language change. Based on a close study of the Dictionnaire in its historical and linguistic context, the book proposes hypotheses concerning its models, authorship and publication history, and examines the place of the Dictionnaire’s Lingua Franca in the structural typological space between Romance languages, on the one hand, and pidgins, on the other. It refines our understanding of the typology of contact outcomes while at the same time opening unexpected new avenues for both linguistic and historical research.
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