The Linguistic Landscape of Chattogram City, Bangladesh: Global Multilingualism, Regional Bilingualism, and Official Monolingualism
Srabani Mallik
In today’s modern world, the users of language have to navigate much less predictable exchanges in which the interlocutors use diverse languages and dialects for various identification purposes, and exercise symbolic power in various ways to get heard and respected, as in the many places around the world where multiple languages are used to conduct the business of everyday life. Bangla is the official language of Bangladesh and this language is spoken widely by the large population of Bangladesh. This study aims to understand the motives, uses, ideologies, language varieties, and contestations of multiple forms of ‘languages’ as they are displayed in public spaces of Chattogram in Bangladesh. By reviewing the existing literature, it is possible to explore the linguistic landscape of Chattogram with a new perspective. The present study probes the ideologies to discuss significant components of languages used and the symbolic aspects of linguistic writing in the LL in terms of sociolinguistics perspectives.Several places in Chattogram city were selected and visited randomly by the researcher to assemble information and photographs of different sorts of signs of shops of this busy city.The semiotic analysis of the linguistic landscape of shops reveals that the frequency of using signs and symbols is very prominent. This present research will most likely allow us to figure out whether Bangla has been used in writing or English or any other languages have been used.