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Mapping the linguistic landscapes of the Marshall Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2018

Isabelle Buchstaller  and
Seraphim Alvanides
Isabelle Buchstaller*
Affiliation:
Department of Anglophone Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Seraphim Alvanides
Affiliation:
Faculty of Engineering & Environment, Northumbria University at Newcastle, United Kingdom
*
*Address for correspondence: Universitätsstr. 12, 45141 Essen, Germany, isabelle.buchstaller@uni-due.de
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Abstract

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This paper examines code choices in the written linguistic landscape of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Due to a history of language imposition, the Marshall Islanders have long been denied the opportunity to express their linguistic identity in the public domain. A recently proposed bilingual language policy, which requires all public signs to be Marshallese-English bilingual, aims to change this status quo. We map language choices in the linguistic landscape of the RMI at the cusp of this policy with an eye on the stakeholders, production processes, and audiences involved in the creation and reception of the linguistic landscape. State-of-the-art geographical and regression analyses model the factors that govern code choices in the linguistic landscape of the RMI. Our findings allow us to pinpoint niches—both geographical as well as social—where the Marshallese assert their linguistic identity in the public realm.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistic Geography , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , October 2017 , pp. 67 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Footnotes

The author affiliations have been updated, see 10.1017/jlg.2018.5

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