ABSTRACT
The term lingua franca has undergone so many semantic changes that the
historical existence of such a language is often confused with the application of
this term in reference to similar phenomena in other places and other times.
Since the same term lingua franca has been applied to the Sabir spoken in North
Africa as well as various kinds of contact vernacular,1 some scholars assumed
that the linguistic situation of the Latin East was similar to that which prevailed
in the western Mediterranean in modern times. It has been asserted that the
Levantine lingua franca was a pidgin2 or a Sabir.3 Perego declares that the
medieval lingua franca of the Levant has left no traces. This, however, is far
from being true if we assume that the lingua franca is in fact Levantine French
or colonial Venetian.4 Actually, we do find here and there traces of a Levantine
French from the time of the crusades. The fact that this Francophony has not
been very much studied5 does not mean that it is not extant at all.
