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Article published In:
The Political Economy of Linguistic Landscapes
Edited by Johan Järlehed, Tommaso M. Milani and Tove Rosendal
[Linguistic Landscape 9:3] 2023
► pp. 306–327

Language battles in the Linguistic Landscape of a divided capital

A comparative study of political economies of Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot commercial establishments

ORCID logo | University of Reading
| Near East University
| Near East University
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.
Keywords: political economy, multilingualism, ideologies, shopfront signs, conflict, Cyprus
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The political economy of language and space
  • 3.Conflict and political economy in Cyprus
  • 4.Language, ideologies and conflict in Cyprus
  • 5.Research methods
    • 5.1Data collection
    • 5.2Analytical framework
  • 6.Analysis
    • 6.1Language as economic resource
    • 6.2Language as part of the division
    • 6.3Language as act of everyday peace
  • 7.Discussion and conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 21 August 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.22039.the
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