Lingua Franca and Français Tirailleur: From Sea Jargon to Military Order? (1st ed. 2023)

By: Joanna Nolan

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Synopsis: This book explores how the eponymous and original Lingua Franca was recognized as a potential linguistic template for future military and colonial pidgins. The author traces the career trajectory of General Louis Faidherbe, a member of the French colonizing force in Algiers in the early 1830s and a recognized linguist, who rose up through the ranks in various African colonies and was the founder of regiments in West Africa, including the Senegal-based tirailleurs. Their artificially constructed military pidgin, Français Tirailleur, was a language modelled on the reduced grammar and lexicon of Lingua Franca. This book demonstrates the direct link between the two languages, as well as connections with other colonial pidgins in Asia that also derived to some extent from Lingua Franca. It will be of interest to students and scholars of language contact and language history, pidgins and creoles, and military and colonial history.