Contrastive language policies: a comparison of two multilingual linguistic landscapes where Spanish coexists with regional minority languages

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study compares two linguistic landscapes and the concurrent language policies of two scenarios where minority languages coexist with Spanish. On one hand, in the Archipelago of San Andres, Colombia, Spanish is in contact with an English-based Creole (Raizal Creole). Similarly, Valencian (Spain) coexists with Spanish as a national language. This work examines over 1200 pictures of public signs to reveal the extent to which these regional languages are represented in the public sphere by their main social actors in comparable domains: touristic sites and urban centres. Results showed that Raizal Creole is associated with signs authored by the community, while Spanish is the language of choice of the government and private sector. In contrast, Valencian is maintained in written signs in both settings. Despite having analogous language laws, only Valencian enjoys substantial governmental recognition. This situation sheds light on the de facto language policies and language maintenance in multilingual settings where Spanish is the national language.