engleski

Sociological Aspects of Public Communication in the Multicultural Town of Osijek, Croatia

We live in the world of political and economic globalization, which inevitably reflects on the intensity of usage and the changed status of specific languages. In this context English is usually viewed as a lingua franca of international communication. This statement is applicable to the EU as well, although three languages are claimed to function as “working languages” in its institutions and bodies: English, French and German. English is the most frequently used foreign language in Croatia as well, not only in its education system, but also in the streets of Croatian cities, where, side by side with Croatian, English has become a dominant language of urban linguistic landscapes. By using a diachronic approach, in this paper the author analyses a sociological aspect of public communication in the town of Osijek, which for centuries was a multilingual community.

linguistic landscape, urban milieu, public communication, multilingualism

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