Multilingualism in the linguistic landscape of urban Jordan Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Omar Ibrahim Alomoush May 2015 i To my parents To my wife To my daughters To my brothers and sisters ii Abstract The main purpose of this study is to investigate language practices in the linguistic landscape (LL) of Jordanian cities. There have been few research studies that examine the LL of Jordanian cities, and none has investigated multilingualism. This study is intended to fill this gap in LL research. By means of qualitative and quantitative methods, it aims to discover the extent to which multilingualism is reflected in the LL. The main fieldwork was conducted in November and December 2012 in urban Jordan. Ten streets were selected in each of six major Jordanian cities, including Irbid, Salt, Zarqa, Amman, Karak and Aqaba, sixty streets in total. A LL item represents ‘any piece of text within a spatially definable frame’ (Backhaus, 2007). 4070 signs were recorded as multilingual (c. 51%), whereas 3967 signs were categorised as monolingual (c. 49%). To discover correlations between types of signs and existing languages and scripts, and to measure these against conflicting language policies, signs are categorised as ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’. The notions of ‘code preference’ (Scollon & Scollon, 2003) and dynamics of language contact are employed to understand the semiotics of writing in the LL of Jordanian cities. The main data findings indicate that minority languages are almost absent, so a questionnaire was introduced as an additional supportive source to the analysis of the findings, providing a qualitative dimension to the study. The study was conducted in July 2013, during which period the researcher interviewed 32 participants. The primary objective of this secondary study is to reflect on plausible reasons explaining the limited presence of minority languages in the visual public space. The main data indicate a dominance of both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and English on signs, because they are closely related to Arab nationalism and globalization respectively. Jordanian Arabic is deleted from the top-down LL, because it is closely linked to informal domains. Classical Arabic (CA) is mainly used to convey religious functions in the LL. Mixed codes, Romanised Arabic (RA) and Arabacised English (AE), are commonly used in the LL to reflect ‘glocalisation’. French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and Russian are found mainly to be used on brand name and business name signs for reasons of European linguistic fetishes and tourism. The data indicate that minority languages are significantly marginalised on both top-down and bottom-up signs. Several reasons lie behind the limited visibility of established minority languages in the LL. Spatial distribution of migrant communities, the small size of minority communities, lack of (sufficient) institutional and parental support, migration and absence of close ties with families and linguistic peers are behind different stages of language maintenance and shift among older migrant groups. Linguistic russification, hostility, instrumentality of both Arabic and English and top-down language policies enacted by the Jordanian government contribute to the limited visibility of minority languages in the LL. Although foreign workers’ minority languages tend to be maintained, the instrumental functions of both Arabic and English, Islam, and the small sizes of economic minority groups have each played a key role in the limited visibility or invisibility of minority languages in the LL. iii Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii Table of contents ……………………………………………………………………………..iii List of tables…………………………………………………………………………………vii List of figures ……………………………………………………………………………….viii List of the transcription symbols used for Arabic letters………………………………….…xi Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………….…..xii Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1. The linguistic landscape and introductory comments ....................................................... 1 1.2 Significance of study ....................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Objectives and research questions .................................................................................. 5 1.4 Outline of the thesis ........................................................................................................ 6 Chapter Two: The linguistic landscape ................................................................................. 9 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 The concept of LL ........................................................................................................... 9 2.2 The geographic distribution of LL studies .................................................................... 13 2.3 The functions of the LL ................................................................................................. 14 2.3.1 Indexical function .................................................................................................. 14 2.3.2 Symbolic function ................................................................................................. 16 2.3.2.1 Status and power................................................................................................. 17 2.3.2.2 Cultural identity .................................................................................................. 18 2.3.2.3 Globalisation and the spread of English in the LL ............................................. 19 2.4 Graffiti in the LL ........................................................................................................... 22 2.5 Authorship and actors in the LL .................................................................................... 25 2.5 Methodological considerations ..................................................................................... 30 2.5.1 Data collection and the unit of analysis ................................................................. 30 2.5.2 Coding signs .......................................................................................................... 32 (a) Languages and language combinations..................................................................... 32 (b) Top-down and bottom-up flows ............................................................................... 32 iv (c) Geographic distribution............................................................................................. 33 (d) Code preference ........................................................................................................ 34 (e) Layering .................................................................................................................... 35 (f) Linguistic idiosyncrasies ........................................................................................... 36 (g) Types of multilingual writing vs. part writing .......................................................... 37 (h) Visibility of multilingual writing .............................................................................. 39 2.6 Ethnolinguistic vitality and the linguistic landscape ..................................................... 40 2.6.1 Defining language maintenance and shift ............................................................. 40 2.6.2 Factors determining language maintenance and shift ........................................... 41 2.6.3 Assessing intergenerational language transmission .............................................. 44 2.7 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter Three: The historical, cultural and linguistic contexts of Jordan ...................... 48 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 48 3.2 Historical and socio-political background .................................................................... 49 3.2.1 The religious profile of Jordan .............................................................................. 51 3.2.2 Political system and the King ................................................................................ 52 3.3.3 Tourism and literacy .............................................................................................. 53 3.3 The sociolinguistic context of Jordan ........................................................................... 54 3.3.1 Arabic today .......................................................................................................... 55 3.3.1.1 Arabic multiglossia ............................................................................................. 55 3.3.1.2 Arabic calligraphy .............................................................................................. 57 3.3.2 Multiple literacies and the prominence of English ................................................ 59 3.3.3 Glocalisation .........................................................................................................