Linguistic Landscape as a Tool for Interpreting Language Vitality: Arabic as a ‘Minority’ Language in Israel

Abstract

[from the editors’ introduction] Elana Shohamy and Marwan Abu Ghazaleh-Mahajneh report on a study of Arabic in Israel. The chapter challenges the traditional notion of the term ‘minority’ language based on the documentation of linguistic landscape in two territories in the public space: the town of Ume {EI} Pahem where Arabic is a vital and dynamic language, and the campus of the University of Haifa, where Arabic is almost non-existent. Through quantitative data and interviews with Arabic-speaking students, the authors gain insight into the consequences and impact of the status of Arabic as a ‘minority’ language in its relation to Hebrew and English. Thereby, the authors show to which degree the concept of minority and majority are relative and politically determined.