Contesting Linguistic Repression and Endurance: Arabic in the Andalusian Linguistic Landscape

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Said, Imam Ghazali and Rohmah, Zuliati (2018) Contesting Linguistic Repression and Endurance: Arabic in the Andalusian Linguistic Landscape. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 26 (3). pp. 1865-1881. ISSN 2231-8534

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Abstract

The present article portrays the use of Arabic in the Andalusian linguistic landscape (LL) where Arabic was used in the past as a lingua franca for eight centuries, banned since the Reconquest and is used nowadays as a minority language. Data were collected from road signs, public signs and signs in some specific places in the Andalusia region, field notes, and interviews with two informants. In the light of theories of ethnolinguistic vitality, language economy and power, and collective identity, the data analysis shows that Arabic is used in the Andalusian LL in three different circles, which are dissimilar to the three discourse frames found out in the previous study that identifies economic reasons as the main source of tension between the government’s monolingualism ideology and the local people’s ideology of multilingualism. In addition to commercial purposes, Arabic is apparent in Andalusia as a sign of vitality against language repression and as a way to build collective identity among the Muslims.