A Language with a Purpose - the Original Lingua Franca

Abstract

The original Lingua Franca was a language without a nation, without native speakers, and without literature. Despite these facts, which we may easily see as severe shortcomings in the linguistics department, it was, however, a language that served its purpose. From the Dark Ages and until the onset of modernity it served as the traders’ Esperanto. As such it was spoken from the Levant across the Mediterranean and to the Maghreb. Actually a quite convincing track record for a linguistically challenged language, I might add.