engleski

From an attempt to fit the local to an imperative to follow the global: Language as an economic resource in the public space of the town of Zadar (Croatia)

In the postmodern world very much defined by globalizing processes and governed by consumerism (Bauman, 2000), language has been increasingly mobilized for production and profit making. While it still functions as a powerful means for the symbolic construction of (local) identities, it has also become an economic resource, enabling the transformation of what once were marginalized peripheries into new centres (Duchêne & Heller, 2012). Along with its role in the commodification of authenticity (Heller et al., 2014), various linguistic resources are employed in adapting to global trends: new languages complement or replace the traditionally dominant ones, and innovative language practices are introduced to satisfy the imperative of profit-making. One of the effects of globalization is manifested in the frequency and amount of short- and long-term migration of people, not just for work, but also for tourism, which is the reason why numerous Croatian towns located along the Adriatic coast have been undergoing intense linguistic transformation in public spaces. The paper is focused on the analysis of ‘unexpected’ and oftentimes hybrid linguistic practices observed in the public spaces of a northern Dalmatian town of Zadar. They are persistent at the intersection of language publicly displayed in linguistic landscapes and those used ‘behind the scenes’, among employees or with clients, hence at the intersection of written (public) and spoken (private) language use, between language used by migrants who try to fit in by concealing their heritage languages in public space, and those who avail of trendy language practices as symbolic resources aimed at gaining economic profit. By combining the analyisis of visual material (linguistic landscape), interview data, and observation in specific private service sector contexts, we investigate how the traditionally established orders of indexicality are defied by rearranging the perceived value and power of different parts of what is becoming a more complex community language repertoire in Zadar.

linguistic landscape, public space, globalization, economic resource, identity

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