Overview

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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9781108999854

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'This book is a very good example of a concise full-language description along diachronic and synchronic axes. Plenty of data is provided, as should be the case with this type of study; the most interested readers will find that they can make additional discoveries about LF by proceeding from the author's solid sketch. The Lingua Franca is the most useful reference work in the history of research on this language.' David Douglas Robertson, Linguist

Author Information

Natalie Operstein's publications include Consonant Structure and Prevocalization (2010), Zaniza Zapotec (2015), Valence Changes in Zapotec (ed. with Sonnenschein, 2015), and Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond (ed. with Dakin and Parodi, 2017). She is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.

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