LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPES OF ISTANBUL
John N Wendel1*, Neal Jost2
1Professor, Dokkyo University, Japan, wendel@dokkyo.ac.jp
2Associate Professor, Dokkyo University, Japan, njost@dokkyo.ac.jp
*Corresponding author
Abstract
Most sociolinguistic research to date has been oriented towards documenting and explaining variation in spoken language. Only in the past decade has the focus shifted to include a consideration of the visual dimension of our linguistic environment, known as the linguistic landscape. Defined by Landry and Bourhis in 1997, the linguistic landscape includes all manner of visible written language found in pubic spaces in a given location including street signs, bill boards, posters, announcements and private messages. Linguistic landscape studies conducted in major urban centers in Europe (e.g., Blommaert 2013), Tokyo (e.g., Backhaus 2008), and Jerusalem (Spolsky and Cooper 1991) have generated fresh perspectives on sociolinguistic contexts, be it a street, a neighborhood, or a city district. So for example, it is one thing for a government to promote a language policy such as we find in the Canadian province of Quebec, but quite another for citizens, businesses or corporations to support it. Many things get in the way of policy implementation such as people’s need to communicate to a specific audience or a determination to flout existing language laws, low competence in the dominant language, demographic contingencies such as sudden surges in immigrant populations, or the ability of a government to control public space.
Linguistic landscape research leads to more than just useful insights. It can document interactions and competitions between local interests and the agendas of corporations and governments, or the effects of the spread of big languages, particularly English. What emerges from such studies above is an account of a neighborhood or district that contributes significantly to the historical, political, and sociological understanding of linguistic space—how, in a given district, languages have been used from the past to the present, to what ends, and how power, status or prestige and their opposites shape the linguistic environments around us.
The present linguistic landscape study is the first of its kind undertaken on the city of Istanbul. A work in progress, we will present our observations on one of the communities chosen for this study: Kuzguncuk/Üsküdar on Istanbul’s Asian side. Ultimately our goal is to demonstrate how linguistic landscape research provides insights into the social and political histories of several Istanbul communities.
Keywords: Sociolinguistics, Multilingualism, Language policy, Superdiversity
References:
Backhaus, Peter. 2008. “The Linguistic Landscape of Tokyo,” in Mapping Linguistic Diversity in Multicultural Contexts, (Eds.) Monica Barni and Gus Extra, pp. 311-333. Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin.
Blommaert, Jan. 2013. Ethnography, Superdiversity, and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity. Multilingual Matters. Bristol, UK.
Landry, R. and Bourhis R. (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Vol. 16:1:23-49.
Spolsky, B. and Cooper, R. L. (1991). The Languages of Jerusalem. Oxford: Claredon Press.