TRANSITIONS IN ISTANBUL’S LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPES

John Wendel
Prof. Dr., Dokkyo University, Japan, jnwendel@gmail.com

Abstract
This paper presents the initial findings of a linguistic landscape study undertaken in Istanbul, Turkey from August 2016 to March 2017. Based on demographic data, historical sources and other evidence, I will present here, first, a portrait of Istanbul’s linguistic landscape in the last decades of the Ottoman Empire. This will be followed by an analysis of the signage in ten districts in present-day Istanbul including a detailed examination of two districts. The objective is to provide insights and perspectives on the transitions in the sociolinguistic regimes of Istanbul’s districts over historical time. The results demonstrate that (1) linguistic ‘deposits’, that is, remnants from Istanbul’s Ottoman and post-independence past found across Istanbul today force a historicization of the linguistic landscape; (2) contemporary linguistic landscapes cannot be ‘read’ or understood in any meaningful sense without taking account historical background; and (3) recent commercial, social and political trends shape and configure distinct sociolinguistic regimes in each of Istanbul’s districts.

Keywords: Istanbul, sociolinguistic regimes, urban sociolinguistics, linguistic landscapes