Méditerranée et Antilles à l’époque classique : perspectives (socio)linguistiques à l’aune des

This paper aims to highlight links existing between the Caribbean and the Mediterranean areas from a linguistic perspective. A short overview of sociolinguistic situation in Metropolitan France and in the Caribbean during the classical period is made, with a particular attention to the question of education so that the concept of semi-literate writer can be discussed. Due to the data (the Prize Papers are an Atlantic-oriented corpus), a quantitative approach is not relevant. A qualitative analysis is privi - leged, through two case studies on the lexical types figue and tokay, so that linguistic links between these regions are highlighted. Lexical transfers exist in both directions, but they appear to be easier from Metropolitan France towards the Caribbean than from the Caribbean to Metropolitan France. This research shed light on the circulation of vocabulary between the colonies, and provides a better understanding of the loanwording process between different varieties of French language, even those that are geographically distant.