Lingua Franca in the "Dictionnaire de la langue franque": historical, typological, and theoretical perspectives

FAIN: FEL-262357-19

Natalie Operstein
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar (Los Angeles, CA 902720032)

Research and writing leading to publication of a linguistic analysis of Lingua Franca, a language used for interethnic communication in the Mediterranean from the medieval period to the nineteenth century.

The NEH fellowship will be used to support the writing of a book on the key publication on the Mediterranean Lingua Franca, Dictionnaire de la langue franque, published anonymously in Marseille in 1830. The book has two interconnected goals. The first is to provide a detailed historical, philological and linguistic study of the Dictionnaire. The second goal is to demonstrate that the linguistic features of the Lingua Franca variety recorded in the Dictionnaire place it typologically with Romance languages rather than with pidgins, as is commonly asserted. By providing a detailed study of the Dictionnaire, including the previously unaddressed issues of its sources, authorship, and publication history, the book will allow for a more precise assessment of the Dictionnaire's place in the LF scholarship. By demonstrating the Romance typological profile of the Dictionnaire's Lingua Franca, the book will contribute to current theoretical debates on the typology of contact languages.

Associated Products

The Lingua Franca: Contact-Induced Language Change in the Mediterranean (Book)
Title: The Lingua Franca: Contact-Induced Language Change in the Mediterranean
Author: Natalie Operstein
Abstract: 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.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://worldcat.org/title/1246351257
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781316518311
Copy sent to NEH?: No

The French connection: William Brown Hodgson’s mission in Algiers and the Dictionnaire de la langue franque (Article)
Title: The French connection: William Brown Hodgson’s mission in Algiers and the Dictionnaire de la langue franque
Author: Natalie Operstein
Abstract: This paper communicates the hypothesis that the key publication on the Mediterranean Lingua Franca, published anonymously in Marseilles in 1830 and known as Dictionnaire de la langue franque, was composed by the American consular officer William Brown Hodgson within the framework of his U.S. State Department mission in Algiers carried out between 1826 and 1829. By removing, for the first time, the anonymity of the Dictionnaire, and by linking its publication to the activities of the American consulate in Algiers shortly before the French invasion of Algeria, the paper opens unexpected new avenues for both linguistic and historical research.
Year: 2019
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Mediterranean Language Review
Publisher: Harrassowitz

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