This article examines language policy in the virtual linguistic landscape (VLL) in Norway and its development over time. The analysis is based on diachronic website data and interviews with state employees concerning the presence or absence of different languages on the websites of three central state institutions. The article reveals a linguistic homogenization of the VLL of the public sector in Norway, which is mostly due to the removal of immigrant languages from state websites. The analysis also shows an increased linguistic presence of Nynorsk (the less used written standard of Norwegian), of the indigenous Sámi language, and of English, which performs a 'hypercentral' function. The virtual linguistic ethnography and follow-up interviews show that the websites of the three institutions in focus exist more or less fully only in two language versions: Bokmål (the more widespread written standard of Norwegian) and English. The translations into Nynorsk and Sámi are mainly done to comply with official regulations. Furthermore, immigration, rather than leading to an increased visibility of language diversity in the VLL, can also put pressure towards homogenization. One could perhaps even go so far as to see Norway as the harbinger of change: once multilingual provision has reached a notional peak, there is a chance that more and more state institutions will cut down on 'less than necessary' languages online, opting instead for 'commonsense' English together with the respective official language(s).
This article examines the use of Russian in state communication in officially monolingual Estonia. Drawing on interviews with high-level public employees in four central state institutions and an analysis of these institutions' websites, the article shows that while Russian is not specifically mentioned in the laws, it is de facto widely present in the virtual and physical public sector of Estonia. Russian is an important linguistic resource for employees in positions that involve contact with the public in the capital Tallinn, and state institutions also invest in Russian by translating their websites. The study reveals a covert policy of accommodating Russian speakers despite the erasure of Russian in Estonia's overt language policy. Furthermore, it highlights how investigating covert policies discloses a growing commodification of Russian in the public sector in terms of valuing linguistic skills in the language.
The purpose of this study is to understand how institutional language managers make and legitimize decisions about language choice on state websites. The focus lies on state institutions in two technologically advanced European nation-states: Estonia and Norway. The analysis is empirically based on interviews with employees at the institutions, who are involved in the implementation and appropriation of state language and communication policies. A qualitative study focusing on these language managers helps to reveal the way they make sense of their policy environment, and brings out their priorities and challenges. The interview data show that institutional language managers explain language choice not just by referring to explicit policy statements, but also in relation to a broad range of other factors, such as economic, pragmatic, and technical considerations. The article sheds light on the language ideologies underpinning these factors by demonstrating how various languages are valorized differently in the institutions and reveals a complexity of intertwined reasons behind the prioritization of certain languages over others. Finally, the article aims to show that it is important to go beyond analyzing policy documents and websites as finished products, and to talk with the institutional actors in order to gain insight into the multiple conditions that influence language policy.
In the recent years, an increasing number of researchers around the world have begun to take a closer look at the public signage in bilingual or multilingual urban spaces (Shohamy & Gorter, 2009;Shohamy et al., 2010). By studying the linguistic landscape (LL), or the "visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs in a given territory or region" (Landry & Bourhis 1997: 23), it is possible to learn about the linguistic diversity among the area's inhabitants (and visitors), about local linguistic practices, as well as about the linguistic ideologies of those who have created the LL.Place--names on street signs and commercial names on restaurant and shop signs constitute an important element of the urban LL. Recent studies (Puzey, 2011; Tan, 2011) have highlighted the opportunities that an LL approach can offer for the study of commercial and official urban names. One of the aims of this chapter is to demonstrate the rewarding possibilities of using the LL methodology in onomastics research. This methodology can provide a better understanding of the language ideologies, attitudes, hierarchies and real--life practices connected to names both in the official sphere and in the less established but by no means less visible commercial sphere.In Norway there are approximately 593,000 immigrants and around 117,000 Norwegian--born people with immigrant parents (SSB 2013). These two groups represent 14 percent of Norway's population. The capital Oslo has the largest proportion of immigrantsthey constitute almost 30 percent of all the citizens (approximately 189,000 out of 624,000). The main immigrant groups in Oslo have their background in Poland, Sweden, Pakistan and Somalia. Today Oslo's population is known to be increasing mainly due to the growth of the immigrant population in the city. In the last ten years immigration stood for 92 percent of the total growth of the city's population.Due to the rapid flow of people with non--Norwegian background to Oslo, the city has become highly multi--ethnic during the last decades. In some areas of the city the majority of the people are clearly not ethnic Norwegians. The immigrants mostly live in the suburbs, but one area in the city center has been home to immigrants and refugees for over 30 years now -Grønland. Due to the area's ethnic and linguistic complexity I chose Grønland for conducting a study on the use of different languages in commercial names and other elements of the written language in the public space in a multicultural neighborhood of Norway's capital. More specifically, in this chapter I will give an overview of how the use of Norwegian 1 , English, and the minority languages 2 that are used by the immigrants living in the area, is divided between the official and the unofficial spheres.In addition, to give a more personal insight into the topic of official place--names in the public space, I have included a socio--onomastic attitudinal survey among inhabitants of Oslo from three ethnic groups into this chapter. The main goal of this sur...
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