Mediterranean Lingua Franca

Mediterranean Lingua Franca
sabir
RegionMediterranean basin
Extinct19th century
primarily Romance-based pidgin
  • Mediterranean Lingua Franca
Dialects
  • Sabir
  • Lingua Franca
Language codes
ISO 639-3pml
pml.html
Glottologling1242
Linguasphere51-AAB-c

The Mediterranean Lingua Franca, or Sabir, was a contact language, or languages, that were used as a lingua franca in the Mediterranean basin from the 11th to the 19th centuries. April McMahon describes Sabir as a "fifteenth century proto-pidgin" and "a relic of the original Lingua Franca, a medieval language used by Mediterranean traders and by the Crusaders." Operstein and McMahon categorize Sabir and "Lingua Franca" as separate but related languages.