Bilingual sign
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A bilingual sign (or, by extension multilingual) is the representation on a panel (sign, usually traffic sign, safety sign and informational sign) of texts in more than one language. The use of bilingual signs is usually reserved for situations where there is a legal administrative bilingualism (bilingual regions) or situated at national borders, or where it is a relevant touristic or commercial movement (airports, rail stations, ports, border checkpoints, touristic towns, international itineraries, international institutions headquarters). Bilingual signs are widely used in regions whose native languages do not use the Latin alphabet; such signs generally include transliteration of toponyms and optional translation of complementary texts (often in English). The general tendency involves the substitution of textual information (presenting problems or readability) with internationally- standardized symbols and pictograms. The use of bilingual signage is perhaps the main symbolic instrument of perception and institutionalisation of the linguistic status of a territory.
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[edit] Evolution of the Bilingual Sign
The use of Bilingual Sign has had over the last years a remarkable expansion, especially in the western and democratic world, where it has been bought along combined to the internationalization of movement of people and also to the conquest of major forms of safeguard towards ethnic and linguistic minorities, as well as the consciousness of the non-correspondence between the administrative frontiers and the ethnic-linguistic divisions.
The first cases of bilingual sign refer itself to absolutely central and primary situations such as the ones of Brussels in Belgium, where with the start of the century, the overcoming of the nineteenth-century model of the culturally united State/Nation further to the claiming of greater linguistic preservation for the Flemish/Dutch language (moreover the majority in the country despite of the greater prestige of French) lead up to a long process of equalization between the use of the two languages. The second example has been the one of the southern german-speaking Tyrol (Alto Adige) which, annexed to Italy during World War I and eventually object of interest for assimilation policies (the conversion of toponyms in Italian by Tolomei), in light of the observance of international treaties had to enforce the measures of safeguard and equalization between the two languages. It is worth noting that both cases deal anyway with strategic neighbouring territories with ambit of languages that are fully official and recognized in other countries, of which the alternative to the initiatives could have been formed by the more or less strained annexation of the other State (the german invasion in the Sudete regions in Czechoslovakia, the repetitive attempts of the resumption of Alsace) or by the attainment of independence (like, for example, for Ireland) or still, by the more or less forced annexation to the national culture (for example what happened with Alsace by France's influence).
[edit] See also
- Traffic sign
- Traffic law
- Rules of the road
- Gaelic road signs in Scotland
- Bilingualism in Canada
- Road signs in the Republic of Ireland
- List of multilingual countries and regions
[edit] External links
- A Guide to bilingual design in Wales
(Welsh) - Signalétique routière en Bretagne (French)
- Engagement politique pour la signalétique normalisée occitan- français (French)
- Bilingual signs in the province of Udine, Italy (Italian)
- Provincial Act no. 323/2004 about Bilingual Signs in the province of Udine, Italy (Italian)
- Bilingual signs in Sardinia and rest of Europe (Italian)
- Topònimos in sardu in sa Provìntzia de Nùgoro
- Relation about problems of bilingual sign (Italian)
- Reglamento General de Circulación in Spagna (Spanish)
- Standard 8.1 IC about vertical signs in Spain (Spanish)
[edit] Bibliography
- Francescato, G. Le aree bilingui e le regioni di confine. Angeli
- Baldacci, O. Geografia e toponomastica. S.G.I.
- Baines, Phil. Dixon, Catherin. Signs. UK: Laurence King Co., 2004 (trad.ital. Segnali: grafica urbana e territoriale. Modena: Logos, 2004)
- Boudreau, A. Dubois, L. Bulot, T. Ledegen, G. Signalétiques et signalisations linguistiques et langagières des espaces de ville (configurations et enjeux sociolinguistiques). Revue de l'Université de Moncton Vol. 36 n.1. Moncton (Nouveau-Brunswick, Canada): Université de Moncton, 2005.
- Bhatia, Tej K. Ritchie, William C. Handbook of Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
