On the language situation of Taraclia (Moldova) through the prism of linguistic landscape
Keywords:
Language Situation, Linguistic Landscape, Bessarabian Bulgarians, Taraclia, RussianAbstract
This paper discusses the language situation in the town of Taraclia in Southern Moldova, where ethnic Bulgarians are a majority. The aim of this study was to reveal the characteristics of language use and choice in the linguistic landscape (LL) of the town. The data obtained from the author’s fieldwork in the town in 2019 will be analyzed within the framework of sociolinguistics studies of LL. The analysis of the patterns of language use on signs has revealed that Russian maintains the function of conveying information, which indicates its important role as the local lingual franca, while Bulgarian fulfils a symbolic function in the LL of Taraclia, despite the fact that it is the mother tongue of the town’s majority.
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