Linguistic Landscape as Symbolic Construction of the Public Space: The Case of Israel

Linguistic landscape (LL) refers to linguistic objects that mark the public space. This paper compares patterns of LL in a variety of homogeneous and mixed Israeli cities, and in East Jerusalem. The groups studied were Israeli Jews, Palestinian Israelis and non-Israeli Palestinians from East Jerusalem, of whom most are not Israeli citizens. The study focused on the degree of visibility on private and public signs of the three major languages of Israel-Hebrew, Arabic and English. This study reveals essentially different LL patterns in Israel's various communities: Hebrew–English signs prevail in Jewish communities; Arabic Hebrew in Israeli–Palestinian communities; Arabic–English in East Jerusalem. Further…

• TA
  Tel Aviv University