Beiruti linguistic landscape: an analysis of private store fronts

Abstract

ABSTRACTAfter the end of the civil war in 1990, a major reconstruction effort was underway in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. With reconstruction came significant changes to the city’s landscape and identity. Adopting a linguistic landscape (LL) lens, this study aims at better understanding these changes by asking what languages are used on the store fronts of three Beiruti streets, and how the three linguistic landscapes are the same or different considering that two of the streets (Weygand and Foch) are part of the reconstructed Downtown area of Beirut and one (Émile Eddé) is situated outside that area. Analysing 128 private store fronts revealed a multilingual and diverse Beiruti linguistic landscape with differences that suggested a divide between reconstructed and non-reconstructed areas of the city. This study contributes to the literature on linguistic landscapes by examining a new multilingual context and presenting a case where local perceptions of various languages present in Beirut combine with transnational influences in shaping the LL of a city and framing its identity. More specifically, this study reveals how the absence (rather than the presence) of certain scripts such as Armenian and Arabic in Beiruti streets is indexical of the city’s changing identity and how the use of iconic and international brand names has contributed to transforming the old Beirut to a cosmopolitan city that is part of the globalized economy.