342 karla mallette
10 For a more detailed discussion, see Jocelyne Dakhlia’s (2008) study: a brilliant and astute
historical analysis based on a dazzling assemblage of lingua franca sightings from the most
disparate sources.
11 Alcarotti (1596: introduction, p. P). Yet later, in Damascus, Alcarotti is introduced to a
guide who “learned a little Italian from some Spaniards, during the time when he was in
the Indies” (1596: 59): what language could this possibly be, other than lingua franca?
12 Lamanskı̄ı̆ (1968: 2:573). Pietro della Valle, in Damascus, describes the last moments of
a dying companion who has to confess himself as best he can in “franco piccolo,” because
he does not know the local languages (1:322).
13 For a fascinating document in the history of Polari—more precisely, a witness to the
presence of lingua franca etyma in British cant—see Hotten, The Slang Dictionary. In the
introduction to the second (1864) edition, the author reports:
“There is one source ... of secret street terms, which in the first edition of this work was
entirely overlooked,—indeed it was unknown to the editor until pointed out by a friendly cor-
respondent—the Lingua Franca, or bastard Italian, spoken at Genoa, Trieste, Malta,
Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria, and all Mediterranean seaport towns. The ingredients of
this imported Cant are many. Its foundation is Italian, with a mixture of modern Greek,
German, (from the Austrian ports,) Spanish, Turkish, and French. It has been introduced to
the notice of the London wandering tribes by the sailors, foreign and English, who trade to
and from the Mediterranean seaports, by the swarms of organ-players from all parts of Italy,
and by the makers of images from Rome and Florence,—all of whom, in dense thoroughfares,
mingle with our lower orders.” (1864: 22–23).
14 Testimony of Sir C.E. Trevelyan, April, 17, 1855; House of Commons Parliamentary
Papers, p. 16, para. 13 441.
15 See, for example, Lo squadrone bianco (director: Augusto Genina, 1936). This typical line of
dialogue captures both the sentiment and linguistic spirit of the pseudo-lingua franca of
Italian empire cinema: “Tutto bene. Nostra vita stare nel deserto. Nel deserto uomo dimenticare
tutto” (“Everything good. Our life is in the desert. In the desert a man forgets everything”).
16 Ann Barnard, “Resurgent Beirut Offers Haven Amid Turmoil of Arab Spring,” New York
Times, April 13, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/world/middleeast/ resurgent-
beirut-offers-a-haven-in-the-arab-spring.html?_r=0 (accessed July 17, 2013).
17 Jon Caramanica, “Myth: Biggie and Pac are Hip-Hop’s Pillars,” Spin, December 2009, 55.
ReferencesAlcarotti, G.F. (1596) Del viaggio di terra santa, Novara: Heredi di Fr. Sesalli.
Bentham, J. (1968) The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham (ed. T.L.S. Sprigge), 8 vols, London:
Athlone Press.
Botero, G. (1596) Relationi universali, Venice: Giorgio Angelieri.
Brasca, S. (1481) Relazione del suo viaggio a Gierusalemme, Milan: Leonard Pachel and Ulrich
Scinzenzeler.
Carey, M. (1794) A Short Account of Algiers, and of its Several Wars against Spain, France,
England, Holland, Venice, and Other Powers of Europe, 2nd edn, Philadelphia: Mathew
Carey.
Castiglione, B. (1991) Il cortegiano (ed. C. Cordié), Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori.
Chaucer, G. (1987) The Riverside Chaucer (gen. ed. L.D. Benson), 3rd edn, Boston: Houghton
Mifflin.
Cifoletti, G. (1989) La lingua franca mediterranea, Padua: Unipress.
Cifoletti, G. (2004) La lingua franca barbaresca, Rome: Il Calamo.