The Language of Shop Signs in Amman and Doha: A Sociolinguistic Study

Abstract

This paper examines the language used in shop signs in Amman, Jordan and Doha, Qatar from a sociolinguistic point of view. Most studies tackled the topic within the domain of a single country or territory. The present study compares and contrasts the linguistic landscape of shop signs in two different cities representing two different social cultures namely Amman and Doha. The study will show how these signs reflect the surrounding community of shop owners and shoppers and will shed some light on language choice and the main differences between the language and its forms used in these signs. A focus of the study will be on the use of monolingualism and bilingualism in shops and signs. The findings reveal that the preference of shop names varies according to the socioeconomic and sociocultural background of the shop owners and shoppers to a certain extent. The signs found in shops in these two distinct regions indicate how the multilingual linguistic landscape is constructed, governed sometimes by the patternsof society, ethnicity and power relations.