Language visibility patterns of ergonyms in the linguistic landscape of a rural municipality in the southern Free State, South Africa

Abstract

The written use of language on public signs, i.e. the linguistic landscape (LL), is an essential aspect of language visibility. From a linguistic perspective, the LL is viewed as a congregation of various language choices that are displayed on public signs. As a result, the presence or absence of certain languages and language combinations form language visibility patterns. One unique type of language choice is executed when compiling ergonyms (the names of institutions and projects). They are considered to carry greater symbolic value than general LL inscriptions and therefore have a more significant impact on language visibility. The question is whether or not the patterns created by them differ from those of the general LL, and if so, in what way. The present study analyses 5 773 signs, of which 584 display ergonyms. This data was collected in the nine towns comprising the Kopanong Local Municipality, situated in the Xhariep District in the southern Free State province, South Africa. The language visibility patterns of both the general LL and ergonyms specifically were analysed according to established LL variables. The analysis reveals a discrepancy between the linguistic demographics in the research site and the LL patterns, especially with regard to the prevalence of English and monolingualism. This discrepancy is even greater when considering the language visibility patterns created by ergonyms. As such, ergonyms are deemed to have a negative impact on the visibility of local languages and multilingualism. To redeem this situation, more diverse choices should be made when compiling ergonyms.

A Panorama of Linguistic Landscape Studies

“…Du Plessis (2009: 228) found that 74.5% of new names were in an African language only, thus the basic policy remained within the monolingual tradition. In another study, Loth and Du Plessis (2017) collected a large dataset (n = 5,773) of the linguistic landscape of nine towns in one municipality in the Free State province. The study specifically focused on ergonyms (i.e.…”