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The languages in Aruba's linguistic landscape : the representation of Aruba's four dominant languages in written form in the public spheref
Bamberger, Fardau Mijts, Eric
Supheert, Roselinde
Bamberger, Fardau
Supheert, Roselinde
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Keyword
Location research
Date
2016
License
Publisher
University of Curacao
Language
English
ISSN
ISBN
978-99904-5-029-3
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Mijts 2016.pdf
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Abstract
This paper investigates the presence of English in Aruban society today, and more spe-cifically, gauges the position of the other dominant languages in a climate in which English, an unofficial language, seems to be on the rise. Recent economic developments and growing internationalisation appear to have had an impact on Aruba’s multilingual community. By means of linguistic landscaping, the written language in the public sphere in Aruba will be examined, as linguistic landscaping can help expose the under-lying status of languages and linguistic communities (Ben-Rafael et al., 2006). This study does this by examining photos of signs in three different areas of the island. Re-sults show that, on the whole, English is used most often in written language in the public sphere. Results also indicate that English appears to be the language that is pre-ferred in the tourist sector, whereas Papiamento is the language of the locals. Dutch and Spanish are used less. Of these two, Dutch is mainly used in top-down communication, whereas Spanish is almost exclusively used in bottom-up communication.
Citation
Bamberger, F., Mijts, E. en Supheert, R. (2016). The Languages in Aruba’s Linguistic Landscape: Representation of Aruba’s four dominant languages in written form in the public sphere. In: Faraclas, N./ Severing, R./ Weijer, C./ Echteld, E./ Rutgers, W./ Dupey, R. (eds.) Embracing multiple identities: Opting out of neocolonial monolingualism, monoculturalism and mono-identification in the Dutch Caribbean, Curaçao: University of Curaçao. 47–65.