Title: Language visibility and language removal: A South African case study in linguistic landscape change
Abstract:Abstract Some changes of an evolving language regime are moderate in nature as they do not necessarily entail the removal of a language from the linguistic landscape. They can be deemed less moderate ...Abstract Some changes of an evolving language regime are moderate in nature as they do not necessarily entail the removal of a language from the linguistic landscape. They can be deemed less moderate when a former prestigious language is removed, as is the case in post-Soviet countries where former bilingual signs are physically replaced by new, predominantly monolingual signs, no longer displaying Russian. South Africa's constitutional language requirements do imply the re-profiling of public signs in order to feature an African language; changes that seem compatible with a moderate approach to linguistic landscaping. Do the different policies that regulate the linguistic landscape – and the resulting changes themselves – actually reflect this moderate approach? This article analyses two aspects of linguistic landscape change: language visibility policy and linguistic landscape data collected in three towns in the Kopanong Municipality, Free State Province. A central finding is that it is left to provinces and municipalities to promote bi- or multilingual language visibility and that the Kopanong Municipality plays a conservative role in this. Significant changes in the linguistic landscape are being introduced by external role-players such as national government agencies. The removal of Afrikaans from the linguistic landscape may be linked to the latter.Read More
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 19
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