Contesting language ideologies in the linguistic landscape of an Irish tourist town

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Abstract

This article explores the linguistic landscape (LL) of a tourist town named Dingle located in the Southwest of Ireland. Building on recent theorizing in LL studies, where a discourse-analytical approach to LL data is promoted, the study uncovers a number of contesting language ideologies that circulate in the LL of Dingle. The contest involves two key actors, namely the State and the local community, who promote a number of discourse frames that show contesting language ideologies. On the one hand the State promotes an Andersonesque (Anderson, 1983) modernist ideology of ‘one Nation one language’, where Dingle is a key space where such an ideology can be safeguarded. While, on the other hand, local people promote a postmodernist ideology of multilingualism, in which the value of the Irish language is part of a wider bi/multilingual repertoire. This suggests that the LL can be viewed as a dynamic space that is significant in indexing and performing language ideologies that are continually being contested and renegotiated.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)464-477
Number of pages14
JournalInternational Journal of Bilingualism
Volume18
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Oct 2014

Keywords

  • Irish
  • Linguistic landscape
  • discursive frames
  • mobility
  • tourist domain

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