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137682

Status and Function of English on Egyptian Public Signs

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

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Abstract

The current research paper surveys the public space of Mansoura city, Egypt. More specifically, it explores the status and functions of English and documents how it is ultimately spread visually on public signs, despite being a foreign language. Following a quantitative sampling approach, 1350 photographs of shop/business signs are gathered from three different commercial streets to be analyzed. Results show that social, economic, and aesthetic factors have played a role in the high presence of English, especially on bi/multilingual signs. On the one hand, English-only appears to be more valued in affluent areas where the message is easily understood to both local community and foreigners. On the other hand, English symbolizes positive values associated with modernity, high quality and fashion, which serve to advertise local products and link them with the global market. Further, use of English may serve innovative functions through language creativity and word play. The growing use of English entails increase use of transliterations from and into English. Arabized English or Romanized Arabic are may be used to fill a lexical or cultural gap between both languages. However, they result in the acceptance of many transliterated words as loanwords in Arabic.

DOI

10.21608/mrk.2020.137682

Keywords

linguistic landscape, language contact, Arabic, English, Globalization, Literacy, Egypt

Authors

First Name

ايمان محمود عبدالوهاب ابراهيم

Last Name

نوفل

MiddleName

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Affiliation

ماجستير في الآداب

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City

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Orcid

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Volume

20

Article Issue

الجزء الأول 230 ديسمبر

Related Issue

20389

Issue Date

2020-12-01

Receive Date

2021-01-10

Publish Date

2020-12-01

Page Start

19

Page End

40

Print ISSN

2535-2113

Online ISSN

2735-3273

Link

https://mrk.journals.ekb.eg/article_137682.html

Detail API

https://mrk.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=137682

Order

16

Type

المقالة الأصلية

Type Code

1,346

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

مجلة القراءة والمعرفة

Publication Link

https://mrk.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Status and Function of English on Egyptian Public Signs

Details

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Article

Created At

23 Jan 2023