Lingua francas as evidence of standard language ideology in historical perspective

Abstract

The paper considers historical lingua francas and standard language ideology from the framework of ‘language history from below’. Although some work has been devoted to mixed forms of language in studies of standardisation, little attention has been paid to lingua francas. This paper focusses on a historical dictionary – the Dictionnaire de la langue franque of 1830 – to argue that historical data can be considered as evidence ‘from below’ for the broader ideologies of standardisation which were circulating in early modern Europe. I argue that the fictive dialogues contained in the Dictionnaire are a projection that reflect broader theories about language standardisation at the time. In this sense, the paper argues for further development of the role of lingua francas in models of standardisation more generally.