Namibia is a multlingual and multi-ethnic society. Upon independence in 1990, English was chosen as the only official language although only a small minority of the population spoke English at that time and Namibia had never been a British colony. In 2011 only 3.4% of the population used English as their primary home language, but English plays a major role in official contexts and is used in inter-ethnic communication (NSA 2012).
This paper reports on an investigation of the linguistic landscape of Windhoek, Namibia’s capital city. The main research question we would like to shed light on is which role the different languages spoken in Namibia play in public spaces in Windhoek. Which languages are preferred and dispreferred in which contexts and by whom? Linguistic landscaping is a useful technique to investigate these questions, as it can show “the relative power and status of the different languages in a specific sociolinguistic context” (Cenoz & Gorter 2006: 67). A linguistic landscape is also not merely a reflection of the linguistic choices of a speech community, but actively shapes and influences the perceptions and behaviour of a speech community and can be considered a “stylisation of ethnolinguistic vitality” (Coupland 2012: 4). Written language, e.g. official and unofficial signage, posters, graffiti, notes etc. in different areas in Windhoek are analysed for this study. Additionally, we will investigate soundscaping data and interviews with shop and restaurant owners as well as customers to complement the analysis of written language data. Together, these data allow a detailed and completely new analysis of questions connected with language choice in the largest urban centre of a linguistically and ethnically highly diverse African state.
References
Cenoz, Jasone & Durk Gorter (2006). Linguistic landscape and minority languages. International Journal of Mulitlingualism 3:1, 67-80.
Coupland, Nikolas (2012). Bilingualism on display: The framing of Welsh and English in Welsh public spaces. Language in Society 41, 1-27.
Namibia Statistics Agency (2012): Namibia 2011 Population and Housing Census Main Report. (accessed 8 August 2016)
