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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 271

Part of Session 122: In the Shadow of Empire (Other abstracts in this session)

Language legislation as visible in the linguistic landscape of Canada, Ireland, Scotland and Wales

Authors: Webb, Declan
Submitted by: Webb, Declan (National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland)

 

The visual representation of languages on public signs is perhaps the most obvious and may be regarded by some as the most obtrusive manner to promote minority or threatened languages. Ever since Landry and Bourhis’[1] seminal work into Linguistic Landscape (LL) in 1997, research in this area has exploded. Spolsky and Cooper[2] tell us that the languages present on public signs can serve both an informational and functional purpose. They also tell us quite a lot about the linguistic legislation in place in any given geolinguistic space and more importantly about the relative status accorded to the languages used by the inhabitants.

 

In this paper, I shall endeavour to provide an overview of the most recent legislation in place in Canada, Ireland, Scotland and Wales with regard to official language visibility. Much of the paper shall focus on data collected during the creation of a Minority Language Visibility Index (MLVI), which attempts to create a template for measuring the visibility of languages in any given cityscape. The cities analysed are the capital cities of each of the four countries listed above, namely Ottawa, Dublin, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Little attention has been paid to this visual representation of the minority language in Ireland, Scotland and Wales and this has given rise to a somewhat fragmentary and still quite deficient representation of these Celtic languages in the linguistic landscape of their three geolinguistic territories. Davyth Hicks[3] presented a paper in Barcelona in 2002 highlighting the blatant lack of planning with regard to Gaelic signage in Scotland. Ten years on, a study into the visual presence of Gaelic in Edinburgh seems apt. In Canada, most of the research has come from within Québec; therefore an analysis of the visibility of French outside Québec is particularly instructive. Both the research of Daniel Monnier[4] and Marc Levine[5] in Québec highlight the explosive nature of this issue, as well as the prevalence of English on street signage in Montreal. Therefore, it would only appear just to analyse the equivalent representation of French 200 kilometres to the west in the federal capital – Ottawa.

 

Through the MLVI presented in this paper, the visibility of all four languages previously mentioned shall be examined within seven different domains. A final visibility coefficient for all four cities will be then suggested. Examples of areas where visibility is lacking or where particular patterns of representation suggest a visiolinguistic hierarchy shall also be identified.

[1]      Rodrigue Landry et Richard Y. Bourhis, ‘Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study’, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16, 1 (1997), 23–49.

[2]      Bernard Spolsky et Robert L. Cooper, The Languages of Jerusalem (Oxford: Clarendon

       Press, 1991).

[3]      Davyth Hicks, ‘Scotland’s Linguistic Landscape: The lack of policy and planning with Scotland’s  place-names and signage’, World Congress on Language Policies, Barcelona, 16-20 April 2002.

[4]      Daniel Monnier, Langue d’accueil et langue de service dans les commerces à Montréal (Québec: Conseil de la langue française, 1989).

[5]      Marc Levine, The Reconquest of Montreal (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1990), p. 137.