Lingua Franca
PrintA language of Tunisia
ISO 639-3
Alternate Names
’Ajnabi, Aljamia, Ferenghi, Petit Mauresque, Sabir
Population
No remaining speakers.
Location
Tunisia; Dodecanese islands west bank, Greece; Cyprus; other major Mediterranean ports.
Language Status
10 (Extinct).
Classification
Dialects
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
Documented in Jerba, Tunisia in 1353.