Documenting Manchester's linguistic landscapes with LinguaSnappYaron Matras, Leonie Gaiser
The distribution of language signs has been argued to
reflect movement across time and space, stability, and spatial segmentation
(Blommaert 2013, Jaworski 2014). Our study focuses on Manchester, a
post-industrial multi-lingual city where language practices are generally
bottom-up and de-centralised (Matras & Robertson 2015). We discuss three
dimensions in the semiotic construction of space and networks of communication
through LL:
First, LL signals ownership of place: Somali, Bengali,
Kurdish and Thai cluster densely in just a few streets. Hebrew and Chinese are
used to explicitly identify place in contrast to neighbouring areas.
Second, the spatial distribution of signs, and
cross-referencing among them, creates contextual networks, identifying the
position of the sign as part of a city-wide network. This is the case for event
promotion and product information in languages like Persian and others.
Finally, signage conveys residents’ active construction
of a civic identity: languages are combined across community boundaries, on the
one hand, while on the other, creative compositions may result in ambiguity of
language choice, mirroring the permeability of language boundaries and
residents’ holistic appreciation of their language repertoires.
The latter especially may call into question, in some
instances, the very notion of ‘languages’ as discrete entities, reinforcing the
need to re-think categorisations in the complex reality of urban
multilingualism.
Our data collection and assessment relies on LinguaSnapp,
the world’s very first mobile app designed to record and map LL. Its
geo-referencing and analytical descriptor menus allow for a combination of
quantitative and qualitative analyses which, supported by ethnographic
observations in targeted locations, and triangulated with other available
datasets on local languages, offers a more comprehensive and holistic picture.
This opens up new opportunities to address the challenges posed by the
complexity of today’s urban multilingual reality.
References
Blommaert, J. 2013. Ethnography, Superdiversity and
Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of
Complexity.
Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Jaworski, A. 2014. Welcome: Synthetic personalization and
commodification of sociability in
the
linguistic landscape of global tourism. In B. Spolsky, O. Inbar, & M.
Tannenbaum (eds.), Challenges for
language education and policy: Making space for people. London: Routledge, 214-231.
Matras, Y. & A. Robertson. 2015. Multilingualism in a
post- industrial city: policy and practice
in
Manchester. Current Issues in Language Planning 16:3, 296-314.