Lingua Franca

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A language of Tunisia

ISO 639-3
pml
Alternate Names
’Ajnabi, Aljamia, Ferenghi, Petit Mauresque, Sabir
User Population

No known L1 speakers. The last speakers probably survived into the 1850s (Holm 1989).

Location

Tunis governorate; other major Mediterranean ports.

Language Status

10 (Extinct).

Classification
Pidgin, Romance based
Dialects

None known. Lexicon from Italian [ita] and Occitan [oci]. Reportedly a present-day variety on Aegean Islands, used as pidgin in southeast Mediterranean region, has mainly Arabic syntax and vocabulary which is 65%–70% Italian [ita], 10% Spanish [spa], and other Catalan [cat], French [fra], Ladino [lad], and Turkish [tur] words.

Language Development

Dictionary.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Lingua Franca
Other Comments

Documented in Jerba, Tunisia in 1353.