Linguistic landscape

Linguistic landscape is the 'visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs in a given territory or region' (Landry and Bourhis 1997:23). Linguistic landscape has been described as being 'somewhere at the junction of sociolinguistics, sociology, social psychology, geography, and media studies'.It is a concept used in sociolinguistics as scholars study how languages are visually used in multilingual societies, from large metropolitan centers to Amazonia. For example, some public signs in Jerusalem are in Hebrew, English, and Arabic (Spolsky and Cooper 1991, Ben-Rafael, Shohamy, Amara, and Trumper-Hecht 2006). The three-language (Tamil, English and Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam railway station in South India. Almost all railway stations in India have signs in three or more languages (English, Hindi and the local language).Spanish-English sign at Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in Dallas, Texas; the congregation has both English and Spanish speakers.Bilingual sign in a Quebec supermarket with markedly predominant French text.Monolingual biscriptal street sign in Belarusian in Minsk, Belarus.English and Cherokee sign: Cherokee visually prominent but less functional.English and Spanish hospital directory, English prominent, in USA.English and French sign in Louisiana, French written to indicate historical link, not so much to be understoodSpanish church sign in Georgia, USA, addressed entirely to Spanish readers.Washing machine repairman advertising on his truck, in English and Spanish, English on top, TexasProduct originally labeled in English; bilingual warning base added for any hospital visitors & workers who are Spanish-dominant.Bilingual sign, in three scripts, near Hungary-Ukraine border.Sign in Israel written in Hebrew (official language), Arabic (widespread language), plus in English.Sign in Roman script but Hebrew words, a hostel in Haifa, Israel catering to European gentilesThis Spanish sign was advertising a mobile home for rent in a largely Hispanic neighborhood in Texas. The broader community is predominantly non-Spanish speaking.Commercial signs in section of Houston, Texas with large Asian population.Predominantly Spanish sign in Texas church working to welcome Spanish speakers, near English version of same signChinese sign on restaurant in America, conveying Chinese aura but not propositional content.Trilingual, biscriptal sign in Nunavut, Canada, using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabic scriptHebrew gravestone in GermanyGerman gravestone in IsraelApartheid era trilingual sign in South AfricaGujarati and English sign on shop in English-speaking town in America, a Hindu talisman in the Gujarati languageManila Oriental Market, grocery store in Daly, CA catering to many customers of Asian originA library sign in English with Spanish below, in Texas. The city has many Spanish speakers moving in, so the public library has added Spanish books and Spanish signs.Statue of Mariano Datahan in Bohol, Philippines, early promoter of the Eskayan language and script, labeled in Eskayan with its unique scriptVietnamese temple in Seattle, sign in three languagesTombstone for Gurkha soldier who served in British army, in Gurkha and EnglishMi'kmaq language stop sign in Elsipogtog First Nation, Canada, street names in EnglishSign on building for Burmese refugees in USASigns in both Japanese and Portuguese in the Homi housing complex in the Homigaoka district of Toyota City, JapanIn Fredericksburg, Texas founded by Germans, using German image for tourism. German part of the sign only for a German aura.'Learn Danish' banner in Danish and German, in Flensburg, Germany where it is an officially recognised regional language.Sign in Macau with street name in both Chinese and PortugueseLatin on altar and wall of cathedral in USA. Understood by few, but seen as holier by some.Sign specifically made for Spanish language church. Burglar alarm warning sign mass-produced, so English.Sign in Jerusalem prohibiting slanderous speechSign for government-run eye clinic in Yellowknife, Canada, with all 11 official languages of the Northwest TerritoriesMultilingual signs at supermarket in Arlington, Texas. The area has many immigrants who speak Chinese, Vietnamese, or Spanish.Recycling site labeled in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali in MinneapolisCoptic and Arabic inscription in old part of Cairo, from 1899Maronite convent in Old Jerusalem: French, Latin, Arabic, HebrewManhole cover, San Antonio. English, except 'No Basura!' ('No trash/waste!') in Spanish. 'Made in India' in EnglishWendish museum sign in Texas, welcoming visitors in both Wendish and EnglishSwedish trash can sign with five languages, reflecting growing population of refugees from Middle EastThough French is official om Martinique, sign is in Creole.Korean newspaper machines, Fresh Meadows, NY, labeled in Korean & English. Linguistic landscape is the 'visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs in a given territory or region' (Landry and Bourhis 1997:23). Linguistic landscape has been described as being 'somewhere at the junction of sociolinguistics, sociology, social psychology, geography, and media studies'.It is a concept used in sociolinguistics as scholars study how languages are visually used in multilingual societies, from large metropolitan centers to Amazonia. For example, some public signs in Jerusalem are in Hebrew, English, and Arabic (Spolsky and Cooper 1991, Ben-Rafael, Shohamy, Amara, and Trumper-Hecht 2006). Studies of the linguistic landscape have been published from research done around the world. The field of study is relatively recent; 'the linguistic landscapes paradigm has evolved rapidly and while it has a number of key names associated with it, it currently has no clear orthodoxy or theoretical core' (Sebba 2010:73). A special issue of the International Journal of Multilingualism (3.1 in 2006) was devoted to the subject. Also, the journal World Englishes published a themed issue of five papers as a 'Symposium on World Englishes and Linguistic Landscapes: Five Perspectives' (2012, vol. 31.1). Similarly, an entire issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language (228 in 2014) was devoted to the subject, including looking at signs that show influences from one language on another language. In 2015 an academic journal devoted to this topic was launched, titled Linguistic Landscape: An International Journal, from John Benjamins. There is also a series of academic conferences on the study of linguistic landscape. A comprehensive, searchable Linguistic Landscape Bibliography is available. A 2016 special issue of Manusya (22, 2016) begins with a history and summary of the field. Because 'the methodologies employed in the collection and categorisation of written signs is still controversial', basic research questions are still being discussed, such as: 'do small, hand-made signs count as much as large, commercially made signs?'. The original technical scope of 'linguistic landscape' involved plural languages, and almost all writers use it in that sense, but Papen has applied the term to the way public writing is used in a monolingual way in a German city and Heyd has applied the term to the ways that English is written, and people's reactions to these ways. The languages used in public signs indicate what languages are locally relevant, or give evidence of what languages are becoming locally relevant (Hult 2009; Kasanga 2012). In many multilingual countries, multilingual signs and packaging are taken for granted, especially as merchants try to attract as many customers as possible or people realize that they serve a multilingual community (Hult, 2014). In other places, it is a matter of law, as in Quebec, where signs cannot be in English only, but must include French (Bill 101, Charte de la langue française). In Texas, some signs are required to be in English and Spanish, such as warning signs about consuming alcohol while pregnant. In some cases, the signs themselves are multilingual signs, reflecting an expected multilingual readership. In other cases, there are monolingual signs in different languages, written in relevant languages found within a multilingual community. Backhaus even points out that some signs are not meant to be understood so much as to appeal to readers via a more prestigious language (2007:58). Some signs are spelled to convey the aura of another language (sometimes genuinely spelled as in the other language, other times fictionally), but are still meant to be understood by monolinguals. For example, some signs in English are spelled in a way that conveys the aura of German or French, but are still meant to be understood by monolingual English speakers. Similarly, some signs use Latin script that is aestheticized to look like Chinese characters or Cyrillic script, in order to evoke the associated languages while still being readable to people who don't know them. For example, Leeman and Modan (2010) describe the use of aestheticized Latin script in the Washington DC's Chinatown and the Arab Quarter of Granada, Spain. The study of linguistic landscape also examines such patterns as which languages are used for which types of institutions (e.g. country club, hospital, ethnic grocery store), which languages are used for more expensive/cheaper items (new cars or used cars), or which languages are used for more expensive/cheaper services (e.g. pool cleaning or washing machine repair). Also, linguistic landscape can be studied across an area, to see which neighborhoods have signs in which languages. For example, Carr (2017) examined the languages of three cities in Southeast Los Angeles in her dissertation. Linguistic landscape can also be applied to the study of competing scripts for a single language. For example, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, some signs in Mongolia were erected in the traditional Mongolian script, not just Cyrillic (Grivelet 2001). Similarly, in some Cherokee speaking communities, street signs and other public signage is written with the Cherokee syllabary (Bender 2008). Also, license plates in Greek Cyprus have been printed with Greek or Roman letters in different eras. More recently, scholars have rejected the purely quantitative approaches to Linguistic Landscape. For example, using Scollon and Scollon's (2003) framework of geosemiotics, researchers have analyzed the placement and relative size of different languages and signs. Leeman and Modan (2009) proposed a 'contextualized historical approach' to linguistic landscape that emphasizes the importance of considering how the signs came to be, and what they mean in a given context. Their example of the different symbolic meanings of Chinese and English on Starbucks signs in Washington DC's Chinatown and a Shanghai shopping mall shows that it is unwise to draw conclusions based on the relative frequency of languages in signage.