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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 638

Part of Session 132: Re-writing and Engaging with Urban Spaces via Linguistic Landscape (Other abstracts in this session)

Multilingualism and the private sector in the city of Donostia/San Sebastián

Authors: Aiestaran, Jokin (1); Cenoz, Jasone (1); Gorter, Durk (2)
Submitted by: Aiestaran, Jokin (University of the Basque Country, Spain)

The study of the linguistic landscape is particularly interesting in multilingual environments. The linguistic landscape, defined as the conglomerate of the written languages visible in public space, establishes a bidirectional relationship with the sociolinguistic context, since it can both reflect and influence the relative power and status of different languages (Gorter, Aiestaran and Cenoz, 2012).

Our study investigates the interplay between the two official languages in the Basque Autonomous Community: Basque as the minority language and Spanish as the majority language, along with other languages. Our focus in this paper is on the private sector. We will use our database of over 15.000 digital pictures which were taken in different neighborhoods of the city of Donostia/San Sebastián, in the Basque Country, Spain.

Our aim is to compare the way the languages are displayed vis-à-vis each other in different types of private establishments and on commercial signs. The characteristics of the signs, such as the hierarchy of languages on multilingual signs, the size of the fonts or the amount of information in each language, are indicators for the relative importance given to each language.

The results reflect the dominance of Spanish as the majority language and main source of information, while Basque often appears as a translation, a complement, or merely symbolic language. Although there is a strong language policy to promote Basque, the private sector is only partially affected. We also observe an increasing presence of English, in particular in the city center, but other languages are used less often and seem to have different functions. Differences in the allocation of languages on the signs among the different types of establishments provide valuable insights about the strategies of the various actors who take part in the shaping of the multilingual cityscape.

The study demonstrates that linguistic landscape research can contribute to clarify the how and why of different uses of languages in specific areas of activity in the private sector.

Reference:

Gorter, D., Aiestaran, J., & Cenoz,J. (2012). The revitalization of Basque and the linguistic landscape of Donostia-San Sebastián. In D.Gorter, H.F.Marten & L. Van Mensel (Eds.) Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape, (pp. 148-163). Basingstroke: Palgrave-MacMillan.