Indexing authenticity: The linguistic landscape of an irish tourist town

This article examines the linguistic landscape (LL) of Dingle, the centre for a peripheral minority language community on the Southwestern seaboard of Ireland. Dingle is a popular touristic space located within the boundary of the Gaeltacht and for this reason offers a unique setting for the examination of issues prevalent in the sociolinguistics of globalization (cf. Blommaert 2010; Coupland 2010a) including authenticity and commodification. In particular these issues are examined through an analysis of linguistic and other semiotic resources that are drawn on in this touristic space. By mapping the LL the specific aim of the study is to plot the trajectory of the Irish language as a resource for indexing Dingle as an authentic tourist space. A qualitative approach to the data is taken in an effort to uncover the symbolic and cultural resources being activated in the LL of Dingle. The study highlights how minority languages, like Irish, get mobilized as valuable resources and commodities in the context of tourism and the potential impact of this for the local political economy of language.