The Linguistic Landscapes of the Ligurian Sea

Abstract

In late modernity, it is not unusual to encounter the discourse of the ‘borderless world’, and scholars in the social sciences, history, politics, human geography, and other disciplines have been engaged in discussions surrounding this imminent upheaval in international relations.1 This borderless world has not yet come to pass and even within the European Union (characterized by the free internal movement of humans, labour, and goods), States continue to acknowledge the formal borders that separate countries, such as the one between France and Italy. Although the title of this chapter references the Ligurian Sea, in fact we investigate the land border zone between France and Italy and thereby explore the potential for the LL to contribute to border studies. We are encouraged in this work by, inter alia, Watt and Llamas (2014, p. 2) who contend that, in terms of language, borderlands are remarkable places, ripe for analysis along several vectors, including the relationship between language and identity (which we also address in Chapter 3). As is the convention in LL studies, we privilege here the cities that fall within the border zone, examining on the western side of the border Nice (20 miles or 32 km from the border) and Monaco (8 miles or 13km), and on the eastern side Genoa (106 miles or 170 km). From the outset, we acknowledge that Nice and Monaco sit much closer to the national border than does Genoa, but we contend that the comparison is significant, given the history of the coast that flanks the Ligurian Sea.