The Linguistic Landscape of Commercial Spaces in Sulaymaniyah City
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21271/zjhs.29.SpB.53Keywords:
Linguistic Landscape, Shop Signs, Identity, Sulaymaniyah, GlobalizationAbstract
This study investigates the linguistic landscape of commercial spaces in Sulaymaniyah city, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The increasing visibility of English and other languages reflects rapid sociolinguistic change in the city. Addressing a gap in the literature, the aim is to examine the current status and composition of languages used in shop signage. A mixed-methods approach was used, combining quantitative analysis of language distribution in (166) shop signs with qualitative semiotic interpretation. The shop signs were photographed across four major commercial districts, selected through purposive sampling. The researcher categorized and analyzed the signs by language content and sign type using Landry and Bourhis’s (1997) framework. Findings reveal a highly multilingual environment, with English as the dominant language on shop signs, while Kurdish, Arabic, and Turkish appear less frequently. English is used primarily for prestige and branding, signaling globalized market forces and a shifting urban identity. These results highlight Sulaymaniyah’s linguistic landscape as a site of negotiation between local culture and global economic trends.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Ali Muhsin Ali Khan, Hoshang Farooq Jawad
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
