Language battles in the linguistic landscape of a divided capital: a comparative study of political economies of Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot commercial establishments

Themistocleous, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0657-1376, Çavuşoğlu, Ç. and Özkara, M. (2023) Language battles in the linguistic landscape of a divided capital: a comparative study of political economies of Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot commercial establishments. Linguistic Landscape, 9 (3). pp. 306-327. ISSN 2214-9961 doi: 10.1075/ll.22039.the

Abstract/Summary

In this paper we explore multilingual practices in the Linguistic Landscape which are geared towards commercial goals. We study simultaneously the commercial areas of two conflict-affected communities in Nicosia (Cyprus) which are divided by a UN-controlled buffer zone. Ledras (Greek-Cypriot) is a street in the south and Arasta (Turkish-Cypriot) is in the north of the divide. We investigate how these communities’ political economies and ideologies shape language choice in public space and how the language of the other community, namely Greek or Turkish, is discursively framed as economically valuable or worthless. Photographs of shopfront signs and a thematic analysis of interviews with shopkeepers revealed that language choice in Nicosia’s commercial area is highly strategic. We demonstrate that this area is a politically and economically charged space where language battles, triggered by power relations, differing language hierarchies, ideologies, and political economies, become visible in the LL.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/113013
Identification Number/DOI	10.1075/ll.22039.the
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM) Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > English Language and Applied Linguistics
Publisher	John Benjamins
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