SULTAN DÖNER KEBAB RESTAURANT: The Power of Multilingualism in Commercial Signs for Client Attention Strategies. (Júlia Pernau and Marta Crespo)
SULTAN DÖNER KEBAB:
The Power of Multilingualism in Commercial Signs for Client Attention Strategies
By Marta Crespo and Júlia Pernau
1. Introduction
The Linguistic Landscape we have chosen is a restaurant sign localized in Cappont’s neighborhood, specifically in the street called “Doctora Castells nº15”. It is of commercial domain as it is used to advertise and show what the restaurant is called and what is dealt in. It consists of a multilingual restaurant sign in which the main language is Turkish in “Sultan” as well as “Döner Kebab”, both Turkish names, and there is presence of English (“fast food”) and Catalan (“restaurant”, which foreigners might interpret it as read in English but not by locals). There is one alphabet used, the Roman alphabet, this is why it is considered monoglossic.
2. Contextualisation
The linguistic landscape is localized in “Carrer de la Dr. Castells, 15”. This street is in the Cappont neighborhood, which is located on the left side of the river Segre. It includes the Camps Elisis as well as the “Fira de Lleida” and together with the other neighborhoods of Pardinyes and Balàfia. It is one of the neighborhoods that is growing with large leisure centers and the university campus of the University of Lleida.
In 2018, according to the Paeria, the area of Cappont is one of the most populated areas of Lleida, with approximately 11.612 inhabitants. With a predominance of women, who make up 51.4% of the population of this neighborhood, in a lower position the 48.6% of men in the area. Most of the inhabitants of the area are in the age range between 30 and 55 years, who are considered young, active population, but there is also a high percentage of young people of working age or, being a university area, students. It is a more youthful zone, with a lower percentage of older people but with a growing number of children, probably of the working population (Paeria.cat, 2018).
Immigration is a fact, in all neighborhoods of Lleida. The need for labor in the agricultural sector may be one of the reasons why 2.595 people in this area are of foreign origin. The main countries of origin of this immigration are (in order of highest to lowest): Romania (619 inhabitants), Morocco (369), Senegal (141), Algeria (139) and Colombia (125) (Paeria.Cat, 2021).
Tourism, on the other hand, being located outside the old town, it is not as numerous as in the other neighborhoods of this city like the Paeria’s zone and the most known architecture element of the area is the "Pont Vell" (Israel, 2014). In addition, when dealing with Cappont’s socioeconomic profile, being a working class neighborhood, the population of this area oscillates between impoverished and middle class, with few upper class buildings (Idescat, n.d.) and (Paeria.Cat, 2012).
In the following images, there are the respective figures for the neighborhood area (Figure 1) and for the surrounding area of the localisation of the Linguistic Landscape (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Map of the neighborhood, Cappont.
SOURCE: Google. (2024). Búsqueda de Google Maps del barri de Cappont, Lleida [Google Maps]. https://www.google.com/maps/search/Cappont+Lleida
Figure 2. Street view of its surroundings.
3. Methodology
For our linguistic landscape we have done three fieldwork trips to ethnographically observe and photograph the source token analysed, in other words, it is involved a qualitative approach with data that includes an ethnographic observation together with different trips to observe the place, its everyday life, its environment and to acquire visual material (photos).
The first trip, on the 7th of March, was used to discover the different neighborhoods of Lleida to see the type of linguistic landscapes we could find and discover. On the second fieldwork trip, on the 10th of March, after observing different signs and graffiti we decided to take a photo of the token we thought had more multilinguistic elements. The third fieldwork, on the 14th of March, was used to discover more about the neighborhood and the type of people that went to the restaurant.
The top-down language policies of Catalonia in Lleida, as indicated in Article 14, state that everything in public sources has to be in Catalan. In the Article 17.2 which states that outside the linguistic landscape of Catalan the publicity has to be done in Catalan and in the own language of the territory that is targeted.
The bottom-up language policies of Lleida state that it is prohibited the use of any kind of advertisement and propaganda in public spaces destined to give specific services, which are, for example, transgressive signs like graffiti. However, advertisements can be present if there is a license and permission previously given (Ajuntament de Lleida, 2018).
The language context in Cappont is that the primary and official language is Catalan, as 83,73% of the residents are Spanish and 16,27% are foreigners (Figure 3). However, there is a lot of bilingualism of Catalan and Spanish among the residents of Lleida. This term means that someone who is bilingual “may be able to speak two languages, but tends to speak only one language in practice…” (Baker, 2011, p.3). However, there are more languages which bring multilingualism into the city. Turkish, Arabic and English are examples of that. In Lleida 100.284 habitants are able to speak in Catalan and 126.697 can understand it (Figure 3)
SOURCE: Paeria.Cat. (2012). Butlletí Econòmic. Població. https://www.paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf
4. Results and Discussion
Figure 4. Token.
SOURCE: Photography taken by Marta and Júlia.
The most landscape value of our token is productive. What they sell and the sign is used to attract people that like their food. Multimodality is also used to attract customers, with big, red letters, signs like the clock and an image, which is a kebab showing that it is what they sell, “The signs may inform us about the location of a store or the kinds of products that can be bought at that location. Many are advertisements which contain a message that try to convince us to buy a certain product” (Cenoz et al., 2009, p. 1). The different types of languages that can be seen are used to attract people that speak them, it is also a way of making the restaurant more multilingual and international.
The social relevance of the landscape is that it uses the migratory movements to attract all these people that come from the same place as the owners as well as people who feel attracted to trying different food from varied origins.
Turkish identity is reflected in this sign, which aims to attract more Turkish people. However, with the word “restaurant" and the place where the establishment is located, it also intends to attract the residents of the neighborhood and to introduce them to their culture, to make them feel identified with them. In addition, the use of “fast food” tries to get tourists that speak and understand English, and the locals may interpret these words as a simple adaptation or that these words have already become assumed in their daily speech. The sign tells us that everyone is invited.
Because of how attractive the sign is it can bring financial benefits, as Cenoz et al. (2009) say, even if it is difficult to establish it in precise terms, the signs can produce economic benefits to the restaurant as it attracts lots of customers, which is an added income.. The social use of the sign is, as said before, is to attract customers that have the same social abilities or similar to the restaurant's owners.
In this landscape, the fact that pork is not selled in restaurants like kebabs indicates that there is indeed a religious practice being realized inside the establishment. Its reason is that it is prohibited by Islam’s God Allah, taking into account that many Turkish people follow muslim religion.
All of this happens because of the globalization of languages in Lleida. As years go by, Lleida has become a city with plenty of different languages. There are students from all around the world doing an erasmus in the university, because of the tourism in the city and because of migration. This has started a movement of everything becoming more multilingual, and a mix of different cultures, our linguistic landscape is an example of that. However, even if all those languages are being represented, the lingua franca, English, is becoming less and less heard in the street, even if it has more representation than the others in signs, in terms of speaking it is losing speakers. On the other hand, Catalan is the local minoritized language that is under threat and underrepresented mainly because of the conditions left by globalization.
5. Concluding Thoughts
In exploring Linguistic Landscapes, we have uncovered a potential pedagogical tool that illustrates the multilingual and global essence of Lleida as well as its economic expansion. As Shohamy & Gorter (2009) state, “language is not merely spoken and heard; it is also visually represented and displayed. These linguistic expressions serve functional and symbolic purposes, dealing with meaning, messages and contexts that often go unnoticed” (Shohamy & Gorter, 2009, p.1).
In addition, studying sociolinguistics can provide students with insights into language social implications, its diversity and communication skills with their exposition to various linguistic contexts. It is essentially what sociolinguistics does, study languages’ role in society, power dynamics and stereotypes, in addition to being applicable in real-life scenarios.
This project has shown us a special skill to understand the different representations of language around us. It led us to learn how language works not just in class but also around different environments as well as how the use of a language can be so important for our daily lives, and how it is something that is mostly not noticed by everyone, only if you know what to look at.
As said before, we have become able to identify all the functions and the various roles of the linguistic landscapes that we can find, which can be useful in our personal lives. For instance, we can assist our close people by interpreting the language around us or when we have to choose a restaurant to eat in and we already have an idea of what we are going to find before entering. By understanding the linguistic cues, we can anticipate the type of consumer the establishment attracts, drawing from our observations of the diverse individuals who have come to Lleida due to its economic expansion in recent years.
In the context of Lleida's economic rise, this skill takes on greater importance. The city's transformation into a multilingual centre is palpable in its linguistic landscape, where signs, advertisements and public messages reflect the influx of international visitors and businesses attracted by its booming economy.
Through Linguistic Landscapes, we have not only gained insights into the inner workings of the language, but have also witnessed first-hand the evolution of our city into a multicultural place.
References and Web Resources
Ajuntament de Lleida (2018); BOP (2014). Ordenança Municipal de Civisme i Convivència de la Ciutat de Lleida. http://www.lleidaparticipa.cat/public/197/docs/6c2e2ab8cee8ef11cc82f1e8621d78b5.pdf
Baker, C. (2011). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. Multilingual matters. https://books.google.es/books?id=HAwxBQAAQBAJ&lr=&hl=es&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2009). Language Economy and Linguistic Landscape. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.) Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery, (pp. 55-69). New York/London: Routledge https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254813461_Language_Economy_and_Linguistic_Landscape
Google. (2024). Búsqueda de Google Maps del barri de Cappont, Lleida [Google Maps]. https://www.google.com/maps/search/Cappont+Lleida
Idescat (n. d.). Demografia, territori i societat de Lleida. Règim de tinença dels habitatges. https://www.idescat.cat/emex/?id=251207
Israel, G. (2014). Cappont en Lérida. De viaje por Catalunya. https://www.deviajeporcatalunya.com/lleida/cappont-en-lerida/
Paeria.Cat. (2018). Dada oberta. Dades Poblacionals 2018. https://aplicacionsweb.paeria.es/eOpenDataPublicWeb/faces/ca/cataleg/territori/demografia/dades-poblacionals-2018/detalls
Paeria.Cat. (2021). Dada oberta. Estrangers per Barris i Paisos, any 2021. https://aplicacionsweb.paeria.es/eOpenDataPublicWeb/faces/ca/cataleg/territori/demografia/estrangers-per-barris-i-paisos-2021/detalls
Paeria.Cat. (2012). Butlletí Econòmic. Població. https://www.paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf
Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D. (2009). Linguistic landscape. Expanding the scenery. New York and London: Routledge.
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