Lingua Franca

A language of Tunisia

ISO 639: pml
Alternate Names: ’Ajnabi, Aljamia, Ferenghi, Petit Mauresque, Sabir
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.
Other Comments: Documented in Jerba, Tunisia in 1353.

Location: Tunis governorate; other major Mediterranean ports.