The linguistic landscape of Hamra, Beirut : the presence and role of the Latin script -

Abstract

This study examined the linguistic landscape of Hamra Street and streets branching from it in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut. It focused on the visual aspect of the signs rather than the vitality and presence of different languages by looking at the use of the Latin script in the main and secondary parts of signs. This study illustrates how power dynamics and interaction between scripts inform the visual construction of the linguistic landscape in the said street by identifying and comparing the different parts of signs and written using the Latin and Arabic scripts and in different languages, the space occupied by each script within them, and the different types of shops displaying them. The examination of the corpus of data collected suggested patterns of script use for the main and secondary parts of signs and for the different types of shops. The identification of these patterns helped in understanding how the visual aspect of the examined linguistic landscape is constructed through the use of the Latin script. This thesis concluded that the Latin script plays a communicative and visual role, while the Arabic script plays only a communicative role.