Multilingual contestations and the reproduction of English legitimacy in bottom-up linguistic landscape: an analysis of shop signs in Bulawayo

Abstract

Linguistic landscape refers to language visibility on public signs. This includes language on public buildings, street names and shop signs. The configuration of the linguistic landscape of an area is often shaped by extra-linguistic systems such as the history, politics, culture and the general ideological climate. This study analysed the bottom-up linguistic landscape of the city of Bulawayo to reveal how contestations on multilingualism and the city’s identity are expressed, legitimised and challenged. Through a qualitative analysis of selected shop signs along Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Street in the CBD, the study sought to expose how the bottom-up constructed linguistic landscape aligns with or contests legitimate practices normalised by top-down discourses. The study deployed Bourdieu’s concept of ‘legitimate’ language to understand these linguistic configurations. The study’s findings reveal an English-saturated bottom-up linguistic landscape. Monolingual English signs dominate the linguistic landscape while Ndebele and Shona are used in hybrid practices, with Shona also dominating Ndebele. The subservience of Ndebele on the linguistic landscape contradicts the city’s perceived Ndebele identity while the prominence of English on the linguistic landscape of Bulawayo reproduces the pervasive ideologies and practices that valorise it in all official domains as the legitimate language in Zimbabwe.