Linguistic Landscape and Minority Languages

LinguisticLandscapeandMinorityLanguagesLinguisticLandscapeandMinorityLanguagesJasoneCenozUniversityoftheBasqueCountry,DonostiaáSanSebastian,SpainDurkGorterFryskeAkademy/UniversiteitvanAmsterdam,Amsterdam,TheNetherlandsThispaperfocusesonthelinguisticlandscapeoftwostreetsintwomultilingualcitiesinFriesland(Netherlands)andtheBasqueCountry(Spain)whereaminoritylanguageisspoken,BasqueorFrisian.Thepaperanalysestheuseoftheminoritylanguage(BasqueorFrisian),thestatelanguage(SpanishorDutch)andEnglishasaninternationallanguageonlanguagesigns.ItcomparestheuseoftheselanguagesasrelatedtothedifferencesinlanguagepolicyregardingtheminoritylanguageinthesetwosettingsandtothespreadofEnglishinEurope.Thedataincludeover975picturesoflanguagesignsthatwereanalysedsoastodeterminethenumberoflanguagesused,thelanguagesonthesignsandthecharacteristicsofbilingualandmultilingualsigns.Thefindingsindicatethatthelinguisticlandscapeisrelatedtotheofficiallanguagepolicyregardingminoritylanguagesandthatthereareimportantdifferencesbetweenthetwosettings.Keywords:minoritylanguages,linguisticlandscape,English,Frisian,BasqueIntroduction:TheStudyoftheLinguisticLandscapeMultilingualismisacommonphenomenon,whichcanbestudiedfromdifferentperspectivesincludingtheuseoflanguagesinthesociolinguisticcontext.Oneofthepossibilitiesistoanalyselanguagesincontextbyfocusingonthewritteninformationthatisavailableonlanguagesignsinaspecificarea.Thisperspectiveisknownasthestudyofthelinguisticlandscape,whichhasbeendefinedasfollows:Thelanguageofpublicroadsigns,advertisingbillboards,streetnames,placenames,commercialshopsigns,andpublicsignsongovernmentbuildingscombinestoformthelinguisticlandscapeofagiventerritory,region,orurbanagglomeration.Thelinguisticlandscapeofaterritorycanservetwobasicfunctions:aninformationalfunctionandasymbolicfunction.(Landry&Bourhis,1997:25)Thispaperfocusesontherelationshipbetweenlinguisticlandscapeandthesociolinguisticcontext.Thisrelationshipisbidirectional.Ontheonehand,thelinguisticlandscapereflectstherelativepowerandstatusofthedifferentlanguagesinaspecificsociolinguisticcontext.Inthissenseitistheproductofaspecificsituationanditcanbeconsideredasanadditionalsourceofinformationaboutthesociolinguisticcontextalongwithcensuses,surveysorinterviews.Themajoritylanguageofalanguagecommunityismorelikelyto1479-0718/06/01067-14$20.00/0–2021J.Cenoz&D.GorterInternationalJournalofMultilingualismVol.3,No.1,20216768InternationalJournalofMultilingualismbeusedmoreofteninplacenamesorcommercialsignswhiletheminoritylanguageorlanguageswillnotbeascommon(seeforexampleRamamoorthy,2021;Xiao,1998).Ontheotherhand,thelinguisticlandscapecontributestotheconstructionofthesociolinguisticcontextbecausepeopleprocessthevisualinformationthatcomestothem,andthelanguageinwhichsignsarewrittencancertainlyinfluencetheirperceptionofthestatusofthedifferentlanguagesandevenaffecttheirownlinguisticbehaviour.Thelinguisticlandscapeorpartsofthelinguisticlandscapecanhaveaninfluenceonlanguageuse.Thestudyofthelinguisticlandscapeisparticularlyinterestinginbilingualandmultilingualcontexts.Thelinguisticlandscapecanprovideinformationaboutthesociolinguisticcontextandtheuseofthedifferentlanguagesinlanguagesignscanbecomparedtotheofficialpolicyoftheregionandtotheuseofthelanguageasreportedinsurveys.Thestudyofthelinguisticlandscapecanalsobeinterestingbecauseitcanprovideinformationonthedifferencesbetweentheofficiallanguagepolicythatcanbereflectedintop-downsignssuchasstreetnamesornamesofofficialbuildingsandtheimpactofthatpolicyonindividualsasreflectedinbottom-upsignssuchasshopnamesorstreetposters.ThispaperfocusesonacomparisonoftheuseofdifferentlanguagesinthelinguisticlandscapeofonecentralshoppingstreetinDonostiaáSanSebastianintheBasqueCountryandonesimilarstreetinLjouwertáLeeuwardeninFriesland,TheNetherlands.ThestudyofthelinguisticlandscapeofasinglestreetwasalsoreportedbyRosenbaumetal.(1977).Thisstudyanalysedsigncountsalongwithtransactions,plantedencountersandinterviewsinKerenKayemetStreetinJerusalem.ThestudyoflanguagesignsislimitedtoanalysingtheuseoftheRomanandtheHebrewscriptonthesigns.TheresultsoftheanalysisindicatethattheRomanscriptismorecommononbottom-upthantop-downsignsandshowthedifferencesbetweenofficiallanguagepolicysupportingtheuseofHebrew-onlysignsandthemostcommonuseofotherlanguages(mainlyEnglish)incommercialsigns.ThesociolinguisticcontextinwhichourstudywascarriedoutisalsobasedononestreetineachcitybutpresentsimportantdifferenceswhencomparedtothestudyreportedbyRosenbaumetal.(1977):(1)thetwolanguages(Basque/SpanishorFrisian/Dutch)areofficiallanguages;(2)therearenospecificdistrictsinthetwocities(Donostia,Ljouwert)whichcanbeconsideredBasque/FrisianorSpanish/Dutchinthesenseofbeinginhabitedpredomi-nantlybyBasque/FrisianorSpanish/Dutchspeakers.BackgroundInformationonBothLanguageGroupsFrieslandFrieslandisoneofthe12provincesoftheNetherlands.TheprovinceislocatedintheNorthwest.Itsterritoryhasasurfaceof3360km2(abitmorethanLuxemburg).Frieslandhasapopulationof643,000(2021),whichisequalto190inhabitantsperkm2(cf.theNetherlands:1