INDEXING AUTHENTICITY: THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF AN IRISH TOURIST TOWN
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Mairead Moriarty
Abstract
This article examines the linguistic landscape (LL) of Dingle, the centre for a peripheral minority language community on the Southwestern seaboard of Ireland. Dingle is a popular touristic space located within the boundary of the Gaeltacht and for this reason offers a unique setting for the examination of issues prevalent in the sociolinguistics of globalization (cf. Blommaert 2010; Coupland 2010a) including authenticity and commodification. In particular these issues are examined through an analysis of linguistic and other semiotic resources that are drawn on in this touristic space. By mapping the LL the specific aim of the study is to plot the trajectory of the Irish language as a resource for indexing Dingle as an authentic tourist space. A qualitative approach to the data is taken in an effort to uncover the symbolic and cultural resources being activated in the LL of Dingle. The study highlights how minority languages, like Irish, get mobilized as valuable resources and commodities in the context of tourism and the potential impact of this for the local political economy of language.
©2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Munich/Boston
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- INDEXING AUTHENTICITY: THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF AN IRISH TOURIST TOWN
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- An introduction: Language Management Theory in Language Policy and Planning
- Spracherhalt als Prozess: Elemente des kirchlichen Sprachmanagements bei den katholischen Sorben
- Behaving toward language in the Mormon mission: the Czech case
- The management of language and power in intercultural contact situations in Japan
- Chinese IT terminology management in Hong Kong
- The management of academic discourse acquisition
- Language management in the regional conflicts in the Sudans
- Excuse my poor English: language management in English-language online discussion forums
- Report
- Report: The Society of Language Management
- Special Issue Book Review
- Book Review
- Book Reviews
- Indexicality and subjective perceptions of the linguistic landscape
- From linguistics to semiotics in the study of public signage and space
- Small languages and small language communities 78
- INDEXING AUTHENTICITY: THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF AN IRISH TOURIST TOWN
