Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: What language did Columbus speak?

What language did Columbus speak?

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, What language did Columbus speak?

John Gallagher and guests explore language in the 15th-century Age of Exploration.

John Gallagher and guests look at language during the Age of Exploration, including the enigmatic lingua franca, the bridge used when peoples from different countries meet.

Christopher Columbus spoke to lots of people: his family and kin in Genova, merchants in Venice, royalty in Madrid, the crew of his ship, not to mention the people he met on the other side of the Atlantic. Today, we would consider this a case of multilingualism. But is that how Columbus would have seen it? What language did he think he spoke himself? In the same period a pidgin language developed to allow linguistically diverse communities in the eastern Mediterranean and north Africa to carry out trade, diplomacy, and general communication. We look at the latest research on this language, known as lingua franca, and consider what it might tell us about communication amongst the linguistic communities of the same region today.  New Generation Thinker John Gallagher is joined by guests Dr Joanna Nolan, Professor Nandini Das, Dr Birgül Yılmaz, and translator David Bellos.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Dr Joanna Nolan teaches at SOAS, University of London and is the author of The Elusive Case of Lingua Franca: Fact and Fiction

You can find other episodes exploring language in the New Research playlist on the Free Thinking programme website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

New Thinking: the impact of being multilingual hears from Katrin Kohl, Rajinder Dudrah and Wen-chin Ouyang https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08s6mjd

New Thinking: Shakespeare's language talks to Alison Findlay and Jonathan Culpeper, collaborators on an Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07h2z4r 

New Thinking: City Talk looks at the Manchester accents mapping project with Dr Erin Carrie and Dr Rob Drummond https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07h30hm

Free Thinking: Speech, Voice, Accents and AI brought together Sadie Ryan, Allison Koenecke and Lynda Clark https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000srbn

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