The many faces of one town : mapping the linguistic landscape of downtown of Hódmezővásárhely from various perspectives

Abstract

An examination of the linguistic landscape can happen from different perspectives depending on the aspect of
it the linguist wants to investigate. The most frequent thematic categorizations for examination are the
viewpoints of tourism, economy and minority language use and the business perspectives. Accordingly, from a
touristic point of view the examination focuses on whether the public places frequently visited by tourist
present relevant information in foreign languages and what languages are used. This provides information
about the preparedness of the area for ’accepting’ foreign tourists and can ease their stay. From a minority
language perspective the appearance of minority languages in signage in public places is examined to get
information about the status of minority language/s. The business perspective examination includes the
mapping of signage and names disposed by shops and services. The linguistic landscape is mapped and
analyzed from the point of view of the foreign languages applied, their content and relevance to the
establishment (shop or service) type to get information about how much the shops of a certain profile follow
the international trends in using foreign languages in the signage. In this paper the linguistic landscape of the
center of Hódmezővásárhely, Hungary, is examined from the perspective of tourism, minority languages and
business. The territory of the research is limited to the center of town as it houses most businesses and tourists
are likely to visit it. The purpose if this paper is to investigate the different results gained from the mappings
carried out on the different perspectives. The objective is to outline the linguistic landscape of the town center
and by comparing the results conclusions as to which aspect the town center is the most and the least prepared
for within the same area are drawn.