SCANDIC: THE EMERGENCE OF COMMERCIAL MULTILINGUALISM IN LLEIDA

SCANDIC: THE EMERGENCE OF COMMERCIAL MULTILINGUALISM IN LLEIDA

Bruna Gastó and Carlota Egea

FIGURE 1: LINGUISTIC TOKEN ANALYSED: SCANDIC. PICTURE TAKEN BY THE AUTHORS OF THIS BLOG 

INTRODUCTION 

The adoption and assimilation of English as the universal language, as a lingua franca (ELF) in various civilizations, has manifested a notorious impact in society over the last years. This impact has reached beyond the various contexts in which English is used frequently (schools, companies…) to other simple items including words and images exposed in public spaces via posters, advertisements, written notes, and other public expressive writing, speaking, reading and listening that we call linguistic landscapes (LL). This expansion has reached non-English-speaking societies in southern Europe, like Catalonia.

A banner in Lleida, the city where the study was conducted serves as the project's chosen linguistic landscape (LL). This area is vibrant and undergoing sociolinguistic change as a result of the flutter of commercial, social, and cultural life in the city center where we discovered it. Further down in the blog, we can see that there is a photo of a map of the neighborhoods of Lleida and the linguistic landscape that we have chosen is in the center of Lleida where the citizens of the city very often pass by and can look at the menus or posters that people put on the face of the buildings as we can see in figure 1. This statement is intended to be communicated to the general public and the image summarizes a bar menu. 

The main purpose of a banner is to effectively and affordably convey a message to a sizable audience; in this instance, the message is an advertisement scrawled on a banner. In this banner, we can see four different languages, Spanish and Catalan, which are the main languages spoken in Lleida, and then English and Polish (see examples below), in this case, English is more widely spoken than Polish, for the simple fact that English is learned at school and Polish is not, that is why people only speak Polish if it is their mother tongue or second language if they study it outside of school. Different business types use these signs for branding, promoting, and selling purposes because of their versatility in terms of size, shape, visual aids, and designs, that is, because of their multimodality (the use of more than one way of communicating). A multilingual, commercial banner from the "Scandic" eatery will be the object of analysis. Scandic in the world of chemistry is related to scandium, that in this case is a metallic element, with the letters Sc.  We tried to talk to the owners and they could not tell us the reason why they changed the name, for the simple fact that before they were the owners this bar already had this name.  Catalan is used as the main language in this LL code. In some areas of the board, where terms like "cheeseburger," "hot dog," and "gin tonic" are present, it is also used more frequently than other languages like English. The name "Hagen Dazs" shows us that Polish is also present, as a branding name which is now well know. Last but not least, the term vermouth contains Spanish. They are not foreign tongues, because for example Spanish is a local majority language. And other words like burger or hot dog have been accommodated, they have been integrated into the Catalan repertoire as an acepteted words, so there are words that most people know. 

In accordance with Sabaté Dalmau (2023), the designer of the project of which this task will be a part, the principal goal of this project incorporate, firstly, students to reflect on and critically compare the linguistic diversity and to focus on English as a lingua franca or as an emergent language that is taking roots in Catalonia, that is used to communicate around the world. Secondly, this blog helps us discover how to do sociolinguistics research using new technologies; TEP (Technology of Empowerment and Participation) and TKA (Technology of knowledge Acquisition)

Our aim is to show that English is nowadays all over the world and we can see many written inscriptions in English in the streets of our city, in this case, Lleida. As Enric Llurda said, "English is undoubtedly the most popular language studied as a foreign language globally and also in our environment. If a few decades ago there was some competition between English and French when it came to determining the teaching offer in our country's schools and institutes, the debate has been superseded by the acceptance by almost every one of the imperative need to learn English and the professional and employment advantages that a good knowledge of this language can bring to young people. All in all, nowadays English is more common in our daily lives, that's why many shops in Lleida use English to attract people to read and look at their shops. We also find English in graffiti or artistic manifestations in the street." (2020)

CONTEXTUALISATION

Our linguistic landscape alludes to various relationships in the city’s multilingual community, on the local and global language contacts and their competition. If we take into account the area where it was discovered, we must provide an accurate description of the type of commerce and the type of social groups that inhabit it, encompassing the various traits that enable the native to create an explanation of the overall multiculturalism present in Lleida. The selected place where the picture has been  taken is situated on Avinguda Balmes, 29 (see figure 2, neighborhood number 1). This business sells a variety of products, which include cheeseburgers, hot dogs, gin tonics, and some other products that are in the banner and are typically American and linked to the international fast food culture. Those are written in English due to the influence of this language in the Catalan culture. Gorter & Cenoz, 2009. 

Figure 2. Map of the neighborhood taken from project information_ assessment_steps_outcome.pdf. DATE: 16/03/2023

Source:https://www.gifex.com/fullsize2/2011-04-14-13453/Barrios_de_la_ciudad_de_Lerida.html 

 Figure 3. Street view map of its surroundings. Source: photo was taken by the authors DATE: 16/03/2023

Figure 4. Map view. Source: Google Maps DATE: 16/03/2023

The business being studied sells a wide range of goods. Basically, most information is for locals, the people that speak Catalan, and English is only used for words that can be understood even by non-English readers, by connotation, indexical of international fast food. In this regard, we see the use of "advertising English" for these aims. Edelman, L., & D. Gorter. (2010) Linguistic landscapes and the market. In: H. Kelly-Holmes & G. Mautner (eds.), Language and the Market (96-108). London: Palgrave. 

 

We took into account many things while we were there, including the linguistic backgrounds of the residents. Additionally, we noticed that many of the neighboring businesses spoke a variety of languages, with English being the most well-known. Due to Englishization, monolingual linguistic landscapes that can be represented in brand names, store names, or even slogans are now uncommon. 

METHODOLOGY

One afternoon we decided to go for a drink in the area of Ricard Vinyes which is a very famous square in the city of Lleida where we can find different bars, and we just sat in the bar "Scandic" and we noticed that the menu on the front was multilingual, as we can find 4 different languages, that is why we decided to analyze this linguistic landscape. The first time we noticed the bar menu was on 17 February 2023 at 22:35. And since that day we visited the place 3 times to see if they had changed anything, but so far they have not changed anything.  

This is accomplished via ethnographic observation and fieldwork, this way we can observe our token in its natural surroundings making us see its context and making us experience local and global languages in contact in a particular time and space;  Here in the commercial hospitality and services realm. On the first visit, we took the first picture. On the second visit, we took the picture of the banner more clearly to see better the languages there, and on the third visit we did we took pictures of the surroundings. These visits were paid a visit between the end of February 2023 and the beginning of March 2023. We could observe that in this establishment the waiters use Spanish with the customers and Spanish to talk to each other, too; So the majority official language predominates in real practice. As previously said, our LL token is in Lleida, Catalonia. In our LL, we can see how they choose Spanish as the primary language while they use English as a minority language. This goes to determine Catalan, the minority language in Catalonia. Though not in the banner. The language policies dictate that both Spanish and Catalan are official languages and that they all need to be offered to the public as Sabaté-Dalmau (2023, appendix), As English is not the official language in the region but is a popular and effective language on a global scale, it is clear from this that they have chosen to utilize a multilingualism strategy for advertising. We can see aesthetic, identity, and social values or functions. Because it is a banner, the LL addressed in this endeavor is classified as a bottom-up discourse. There are some top-down and bottom-up language regulations that must be observed in Catalonia and Lleida. In order to comply with the law, public signage should be written in Catalan or used as the main language, but upon closer examination.

 RESULTS & DISCUSSION

We have followed the values of the European Linguistic Landscape Observatory and on the one hand, it reveals an aesthetic effort for the name of the commerce that has been carefully thought of. A variety of images in the color of the food, like a burger, hot dogs, ice cream, mojitos, and gin-tonics, those are which the bar can offer to the customers, the pictures that appear in the banner, are some products with the name of them below, some of them are in different languages but most of them are in Catalan, as it is the main language of this banner. Moreover, we can see that there are in with the name below written in comic sans ms, also there are different typographies (capital letters and lower case). Furthermore, there is only one alphabet, which is Roman. In this banner, we can see different languages, English, Polish, Catalan, and Spanish. On this banner, Catalan is the main language, as there are more food items written in Catalan than in English or Spanish. There is a list of food items on the banner. We can see that hot dogs and cheeseburgers are written in English, tapes, entrepans, amanides, gintonics (an abbreviation of ginebra and tonica) ofertes diaries, esmorzars, dinars, sopars de grup and celebrations are in Catalan, that is the main language in this banner, vermouth in Spanish and Haagen dazs is in Polish, that is a brand of ice creams. We can see that in this case the main language is Catalan but there are different languages that most of the people in our society understand, so this makes the society bilingual. Adding to the name of the bar, Scandic is not a real name. And also, there is a second function: the global identity in English with the use of fast-food words to be more modern, international and cosmopolitan.

 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Overall, this cooperative ethnographic project has allowed us students to direct a citizenship sociolinguistics task and participate in it as knowledge generators and competent observers. Through participatory research, we have developed linguistic awareness of our immediate surroundings by closely watching, analyzing, and photographs. So, saying that the English is more powerful in the town because nowadays a lot of people when they want to open a new comer or place they use a lot of English. We have overall realized that Lleida has undergone Englishitation in its streets.

We have considered English's prevalence as a second language and have witnessed firsthand how much ELF is used in Lleida society. Additionally, we have learned to analyze the social connotations and business implications that LLs convey in our community. Therefore, it can be said that LLs provide a valuable educational resource tool because they enable novices to become knowledgeable witnesses. Students, who traditionally received knowledge, now have the opportunity to develop into knowledge disseminators thanks to this paradigm shift. As a result, LLs align with TEP (Technology of Empowerment and Participation) and TKA (Technology of knowledge Acquisition) because they encourage students' curiosity and allow them of knowledge to make genuine links between lecture theory and real-world situations. Finally, we liked taking the theory of the class into this practice because we could see clearly the differences between the languages in this town. Doing this project we felt that we have extended our knowledge into these items that we took in class and, as we said before, we could see clearly that English is taking a big part of our daily lives. We are more conscious that there is a lot of contact/contrast in Lleida about the languages and we can see it very clearly in this banner and around Lleida when we wanted to find a banner to take the picture of it.

 REFERENCES & WEB SOURCES

Anonymous. (2020, June 11). Why the English Language Became the World’s Lingua Franca. Learn English With English Explorer. https://www.englishexplorer.com.sg/why-the-english-language-became-the-worlds-lingua-franca/ 

PAERIA (2022). AV Zona Alta Ricard Vinyes - Regidoria de Participació Ciutadana. (2022, November 30). Regidoria De Participació Ciutadana. https://participacio.paeria.cat/local-social/av-zona-alta-ricard-vinyes/ 

Catalonia, L. O. O. (n.d.). The Landscape Observatory: Glossary. OLOT http://www.catpaisatge.net/eng/glossari.php

Cenoz, J. (2013). Defining Multilingualism. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 33, 3-18 https://doi.org/10.1017/S026719051300007X 

Gorter, D. (2013). Linguistic landscapes in a multilingual world. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 33, 190-212 

Gorter, D., & J. Cenoz. (2009). Language economy and linguistic landscape economy and linguistic landscape. In: E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (55-69). New York / London: Routledge. 

--La paeria-- Ajuntament de Lleida. (s.f) https://www.paeria.cat/ 

Llurda, E. «Aprendre anglès per a parlar amb el món: reflexions al voltant de l’ensenyament de l’anglès com a llengua franca global». Caplletra. Revista Internacional de Filologia, 2020, Núm. 68, p. 199-217, https://raco.cat/index.php/Caplletra/article/view/365856. 

Sabaté-Dalmau (2023, appendix), https://cv.udl.cat/access/content/group/101266-2223/Part%20A%20Sociolinguistics/Project%20Localising%20English%20in%20Lleida/Project%20Information_Assessment_Steps_Outcome.pdf 

Sabaté Dalmau, M. (March, 2023). Part A; sociolinguistics (class handout). English department, University of Lleida. https://cv.udl.cat/access/content/group/101266-2223/Part%20A%20Sociolinguistics/Unit%201/Hand-out_and_Ppt_Unit_1_19_20.pdf 

 

Sabaté Dalmau, M. (March, 2023). Unit 4; The market (class handout). English department, University of Lleida. https://cv.udl.cat/access/content/group/101266-2223/Part%20A%20Sociolinguistics/Unit%204/Hand-out_and_Ppt_Unit_4_19_20.pdf